The outlook for west London is green with increasing cloud cover, thanks in no small part to a brand spanking new data centre being built not far from Hayes and Harlington railway station.
Called LONDON2, and being built by Virtus, the data centre is due for completion in the summer of 2014. Located just 17 minutes by train from Paddington and less than a mile from Junction 3 of the M4, the site will deliver 11.4MW of IT power, and 65,000 square feet of net customer data centre space.
Virtus says that 100% of LONDON2’s power – all 20MW of it – will come from renewable energy, just like the company’s other data centre, LONDON1 (yes, really).
We checked, so you don’t have to, and we were told that LONDON1’s power sources are as follows:
- Biomass – 11.299%
- Off-shore wind – 27.712%
- Landfill gas – 4.685%
- Municipal and industrial waste – 8.049%
- On-shore wind – 48.254%
- Photovoltaic – 0.001%
We were also told that’s a good indication for LONDON2’s power consumption and that by using “the most advanced, fresh-air evaporative cooling technology, solar panels, ground water from its own well, chimney racks for heat extraction, and efficient UPS systems,” Virtus hopes LONDON2 will be the most energy efficient data centre in London.
In addition to being the physical embodiment of cloud computing, the site will also have extensive office space, board rooms and meeting facilities for hire.
Neil Cresswell, Virtus’ CEO, said: “With the range of energy-saving technologies we are putting in place we will now lead in being able to deliver the most cost-efficient and environmentally friendly data centre solutions, offering significant TCO reductions to our clients in power, cooling, connectivity and services charges.”
LONDON2 will be made up of six data halls, all capable of being subdivided allowing clients to have anything from a cabinet in a shared space to their own suite or data hall with dedicated power and cooling.
