Italian cable manufacturer Prysmian and mining giant Rio Tinto have partnered to supply an Amazon data center in Ohio with low-carbon aluminum electrical cables, according to DatacenterDynamics.
The aluminum will be produced by Elysis, a joint venture between Rio Tinto and Alcoa that replaces traditional carbon anodes with inert materials during smelting, eliminating greenhouse gas emissions and releasing oxygen instead. Prysmian will manufacture the electrical cables from that aluminum at its facility in Sedalia, Missouri, for deployment at the data center. The companies say this is the first time the low-carbon aluminum has been used inside a data center environment. The specific facility has not been disclosed, though Amazon operates multiple data centers in Ohio and is building more as part of a planned $23 billion investment in the state by 2030. Wesco will handle distribution and delivery of the cabling to the project site.
"We aim to reach net-zero emissions across our operations by 2040 through decarbonizing our operations and supply chain, down to the raw materials," said Joern Tinnemeyer, VP of data center engineering at Amazon Web Services (AWS). "Prysmian, Rio Tinto, and Wesco are showing that lower-carbon materials aren't a future concept – they're here and going into Amazon data centers today."
Srinivas Siripurapu, Prysmian's chief sustainability, R&D, and innovation officer, added that "the data center industry needs advanced technologies like this: cables that can effectively carry power, meet high-quality standards, and make a positive impact on the sustainability of the entire value chain."
This marks the second low-carbon materials deal between Amazon and Rio Tinto. In January, AWS agreed to source low-carbon copper produced with Rio Tinto's Nuton bioleaching technology for its US data centers.