Solar-powered modular data centers offer a variety of benefits, whether your primary concern is sustainability or speed of deployment. Edge Centres, based in Grafton, New South Wales, has put a number of these facilities into use in Australia and now intends to bring this concept to Southeast Asia as well. In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam National University (VNU) is installing one of these modules. The data center will be used to power the university's artificial intelligence training center and its start-up campus, as well.

Australian-based Edge Centres builds modular off-grid edge facilities. These modules are powered by solar as their primary energy source, batteries as the secondary source, and a traditional grid as the third source. This means that the modules can run 24/7 in an off-grid environment.

Because solar and lithium ion batteries are built into these modules, this approach may be highly attractive to developing countries that still have insufficient power and unreliable power grids. However, in many already fully developed digital economies, this approach may also be of interest to companies that cannot wait until they are connected to the power grid. With a solution like the Edge Centers, new compute facilities can be brought on line fairly quickly without the long waits for a connection to the local power grid that affect many parts of Europe and the US.

The Asian expansion follows Edge Centres' successful $12 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Singapore-based investor Cloud Link Solutions.

Photo credit: Tron Le