Facebook has signed a deal to buy renewable energy in India from a local firms wind power project, the social media giants first such deal in the South Asian nation, the companies said on Thursday.

The 32 megawatt wind power project, located in southern Karnataka state, is part of a larger portfolio of wind and solar projects that Facebook and Mumbaibased CleanMax are working together on for supplying renewable power into Indias electrical grid, they said in a joint statement.

CleanMax will own and operate the projects, while Facebook will buy the power off the grid using environmental attribute certificates, or carbon credits, the companies said.

Facebooks head of renewable energy, Urvi Parekh, told Reuters the company typically doesnt own the power plants but instead signs longterm electricity purchasing agreements with the renewable power company.

That enables the project to seek out the financing that it would need, she said.

India is Facebooks biggest market by users.

In Singapore, Facebook has announced similar partnerships with energy providers Sunseap Group, Terrenus Energy and Sembcorp Industries on projects that can produce 160 MW of solar power, Parekh said.

The electricity generated from these plants will power the tech giant39;s first Asian data centre that is set to start operations next year, she added.

Data centres driving tech companies like Facebook use up as much as 1 of the worlds total energy, the International Energy Agency said last year….