Digital Realty commits to 158 MW of new solar energy

Digital Realty has committed to 158 megawatts (MW) of new solar power in California and Georgia.

The contracts include a 12-year agreement to support the development of a new 130 MW utility-scale solar project in Kern County, California. The project, developed by Terra-Gen as part of its Edwards Sanborn Solar Storage energy project, is one of the largest solar-plus-storage projects in the world and is expected to be completed in late-2022.

Additionally, Digital Realty is subscribing to Georgia Power's Customer Renewable Supply Procurement program. The company will receive 28 MW of new solar supply to support its Atlanta data center portfolio. The energy will be generated by new solar facilities located in Georgia. The program is expected to begin delivering power and renewable energy certificates to Digital Realty in 2024.

"These efforts are part of our strategy to reduce our carbon footprint," said Digital Realty CEO A. William Stein. "We are demonstrating that the data center industry is a key part of the transition to a digital economy that is powered by clean energy."

https://investor.digitalrealty.com/news-and-events/news/press-release-details/2022/Digital-Realty-Contracts-for-158-Megawatts-of-New-Renewable-Energy-in-California-and-Georgia/default.aspx

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SpaceX completes double header launches from both coasts

Over a period of 2 days, SpaceX completed Starlink missions launched from California and Florida.

On Friday, May 13, a Falcon 9 launched 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.  This Falcon 9 first stage booster previously launched Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, and two Starlink missions.

On Saturday, May 14 Falcon 9 launched 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Current Starlink availability maps

https://www.starlink.com/map

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Evoque plans 100MW data center campus in Nashville

Evoque announced a joint venture with Archer Datacenters to bring to market over 100MW of power capacity and over 500,000 square feet of data center space in Gallatin, Tennessee -- about 35 miles from downtown Nashville.

Evoque has earmarked $200mm to accelerate the expansion of the site, which includes a commitment to building a 100% renewable energy solution.

The original 28.5 acre campus is anchored by an 82,000 square foot data center shell, with over 40MW of available power today from Gallatin Department of Electricity’s adjacent substation. The initial project anticipates a 4-phased development, scalable on the existing site as well as an adjacent 32.8 acre parcel. The long-term expandability of 100+MW is possible in concert with the continuously updated transmission capacity of GDE and Tennessee Valley Authority (“TVA”).

“The opportunity to expand into the Nashville market and to serve hyperscalers, cloud service providers, and large enterprises is exciting,” shares Evoque Chief Executive Officer Andy Stewart. “Archer, and their Founder Jordan Milman had great vision that has since been validated by Meta’s new data center, which is adjacent to our location. Evoque looks forward to maximizing the potential of this opportunity and to deliver more best-in-breed digital infrastructure solutions to more enterprises.”

https://www.evoquedcs.com

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ST and MACOM build Gallium-Nitride-on-Silicon prototypes

STMicroelectronics and MACOM Technology Solutions announced the successful production of radio-frequency Gallium-Nitride-on Silicon (RF GaN-on-Si) prototypes.

ST said the prototype wafers and devices have achieved cost and performance targets that would allow them to effectively compete with the incumbent laterally-diffused metal-oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) and GaN-on-SiC technologies on the market.  RF GaN-on-Silicon offers high potential for 5G and 6G infrastructure. The long-term incumbent RF power technology, laterally-diffused metal-oxide semiconductor (LDMOS), dominated early-generation RF power amplifiers (PAs). GaN can offer superior RF characteristics and significantly higher output power than LDMOS for these RF PAs. 

“We believe that the technology has now reached performance levels and process maturity where it can effectively challenge the established LDMOS and GaN-on-SiC and we can offer attractive cost and supply-chain advantages for high-volume applications, including Wireless Infrastructure,” said Edoardo Merli, Power Transistor Sub-Group General Manager and Executive Vice President of STMicroelectronics. “Commercializing RF GaN-on-Silicon products are the next big milestone in our collaboration with MACOM and with continued progress, we look forward to fully realizing the potential of this exciting technology.”

“Together, we continue to make good progress in moving the GaN-on-Si technology towards commercialization and high-volume production,” said Stephen G. Daly, MACOM President and CEO. “Our collaboration with ST is an important part of our RF Power strategy and I am confident that we can win market share in targeted applications where the GaN-on-Silicon technology meets the technical requirements.”

https://newsroom.st.com/media-center/press-item.html/t4449.html

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Southwest Airlines to install Viasat's Ka-band service

Southwest Airlines selected ViaSat's next generation Ka-band satellite in-flight connectivity (IFC) system to be factory-installed on all new aircraft deliveries, starting this fall.

Viasat's solution will support enhanced internet capabilities while onboard, including the ability to stream content and entertainment, watch live television, and access social media platforms and productivity applications on any internet-ready device, gate-to-gate.

Don Buchman, Viasat's vice president and general manager, Commercial Aviation, added: "We admire Southwest Airlines' deeply customer-centric vision. The overall passenger experience is enhanced by delivering connectivity inflight that is the same as the on the ground experience, from streaming your favorite video content to live television and accessing other internet-based applications during all phases of flight. We look forward to being a part of Southwest's commitment to continually upping the bar."

http://www.viasat.com

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Belgium's Pharrowtech raises €15M for 60 GHz wireless RF transceiver

Pharrowtech, a start-up based in Leuven, Belgium, announced the closure of its €15 million Series A funding round to continue developing next-generation 60 GHz wireless RF transceivers and antenna technology.

The company recently launched its 60 GHz CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) PTR1060, and phased array antenna Radio-Frequency Module (RFM) PTM1060 for 5G unlicensed fixed wireless access, wireless infrastructure, and consumer applications. 

The IEEE 802.11ay-compliant CMOS RF chip is designed for indoor and outdoor wireless use cases that support the full 57 to 71 GHz bandwidth. The company also launched PTM1060 (RFM) phased array antenna modules to provide OEM/ODMs with a ready-to-use 60GHz solution.

This investment round was led by Innovation Industries of the Netherlands, and joined by Seed Round investors imec.xpand, Bloc Ventures, and KBC Focus Fund. 

Wim Van Thillo, CEO and co-founder, Pharrowtech, says: “This year has started on a great note for Pharrowtech and this investment is another significant milestone in our journey. Despite the challenges brought by a global pandemic, Pharrowtech was able to move rapidly from imec R&D Prototypes in 2019 to scaling up production of an exceptionally advanced 60 GHz RF solution by 2022. Our agility and capabilities have kept us ahead of the curve, delivering solutions that will shape the future of ubiquitous connectivity. We would like to thank our team, our investors, partners, and especially our customers for their faith in us. With the next phase of our growth underway, we are committed to providing RF solutions to multi-GHz links to enable low-cost infrastructure and consumer applications.”

https://pharrowtech.com/news/pharrowtech-raises-e15-million-in-series-a-funding-to-develop-worlds-first-viable-wireless-alternative-for-optical-fiber

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Juniper adds Steve Fernandez to its Board

Juniper Networks appointed Steve Fernandez to its Board of Directors, effective May 11, 2022. 

Fernandez served as the Global Chief Technology Officer of AIG since 2020. Prior to this role, he was the CTO of L’Oréal in Paris, France and led the global transformation of the company, creating a modern digital workplace for employees and successfully developing a technical culture focused on agility, speed and professional results. Steve has also held several C-suite level positions at prior companies, including Conisus, LLC and The Coca-Cola Company, Bottling Investments Group.

“Steve joins our board at a pivotal time in Juniper’s transformation,” said Rami Rahim, CEO of Juniper Networks. “His expertise with leading enterprise IT transitions to the cloud will be key to continuing our mission to deliver experience-first networking to our customers and adds to the breadth of knowledge of our current board members.”

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