Renewable energy statement
BitFolk is occasionally asked if it uses renewable energy. Here's a statement from our datacentre operator correct as of 15 February 2024.
TL;DR:
IP House says it's currently 59% but they hope to be at 100% by February 2025.
Statement from 15 February 2024
BitFolk is currently entirely located at IP House, a datacentre in the Docklands area of London, UK. BitFolk therefore uses the power provided by this datacentre and their statement on renewable energy is as follows:
As of the current period, our energy provider supplies electricity generated from various sources, distributed as follows:
Coal: 4%
Natural Gas: 31%
Nuclear: 3%
Renewable: 59%
Other: 3%
Total Energy Composition: 100%
We are committed to sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint. Therefore, we are pleased to announce our goal of transitioning to 100% renewable energy by February 2025.
—Vinny Vaghani, Operations Manager, IP House
This is encouraging, but you should read on in order to learn what sort of things "renewable" can mean. BitFolk is not able to promise what exact definition is in use by IP House for the 59% figure now or the 100% figure for their February 2025 goal.
Statement prior to 16 January 2024
Between 2006 and 16 January 2024 BitFolk was colocated at Telehouse London. Their technical answer to the question, "do you use 100% renewable energy" is and was "yes". It is however, more complicated than that. The below information is historical as BitFolk is no longer at Telehouse London.
Certifiably renewable
BitFolk is entirely located at Telehouse London, who say they use renewable energy, and have a certificate to prove it.
For most hosting companies that would be the end of the story. Job done: colo provider certifiably uses renewable energy.
Haven Power's fuel mix
Telehouse's certificate comes from Haven Power. They advertise a 100% use of "Renewables":
"Renewables"
In this case, "Renewables" means "solar, wind and hydro, plus 47.8% Bioenergy".
"Bioenergy"
Haven Power is part of the Drax energy group. For them, "Bioenergy" means, "wood pellets". Some of which come from as far away as the US and Canada. And are then burned to drive steam turbines.
Drax claims that growing the trees to make the wood pellets captures more carbon than burning them releases. This is a subject of intense debate.
BitFolk's view
BitFolk's view is that despite Telehouse's certificate and the technical correctness of describing wood pellets as renewable biofuel, shipping wood pellets long distances and then burning them is neither sustainable nor what people would generally consider to be renewable. As of the 2020 report, Telehouse seems to be 52.2% renewable in BitFolk's opinion.
Many companies are willing to accept such misleading statements and certifications of green credentials and pass them on when asked by prospective customers; BitFolk is not.
BitFolk has been at Telehouse since 2006, and while "generally happy" would definitely be overstating things, it is BitFolk's opinion that overall this is a desirable facility for UK colocation. Telehouse London is quite a large facility and on any given day if you're in the UK or viewing content from the UK you probably send packets through it. BitFolk won't be moving out of Telehouse because of Telehouse's choices of energy supplier, despite being unhappy with it, and even more unhappy with what BitFolk considers to be misleading marketing.
BitFolk understands if you choose to take your business elsewhere because they are able to prove their use of 100% renewable energy. You should however independently verify exactly what other providers mean by this, going as far as tracing this all the way back to the power plants involved, because energy suppliers are often not clear on what terms like "renewable" actually entail. There are a great many UK-based hosting companies proudly marketing that they use 100% renewable energy and then when you check, they are hosted at Telehouse London, which uses power from burning wood pellets.