Latest stories in the European data centre market in July
UK Labour Party deems data centre projects as “nationally significant infrastructure”
Following our recent change in government leadership, the Labour Party is planning to treat data centre projects as “nationally significant infrastructure” says Neil Ross, Associate Policy Director at industry group TechUK, who has been involved in talks with the party.
This would give ministers the ability to overrule local officials who attempt to block data centres from being built. According to Ross, this would only be applied to a handful of very large projects. “They definitely will not be overruling councils for the majority of cases.”
This strategy can prevent a repeat of what happened in Amsterdam, where residents complained about data centres becoming concentrated in a small area.
Portland Trust plans to build 20,000sqm data centre in Bucharest
In Romania, a real estate firm, Portland Trust, has been granted permission to build a data centre in Bucharest. The company is traditionally focused on office buildings and parks, and has previously developed supermarkets, shopping centres, and light industrial & logistics parks.
Bought from Broadhurst Investments, the land is in the Militari district. Portland aims to build a single two-story data centre with approximately 20,000sqm of floorspace. More updates to come on this project.
Google plans to build $2.0B data centre in collaboration with Romanian government for Cloud technologies
This wasn’t the only big announcement to come out of Romania as it was announced that the Romanian government and Google have signed a memorandum to collaborate on cloud technologies. Google aims to build a data centre in the country, with plans to invest up to $2 billion. The Romanian prime minister highlighted that Romania is an attractive market for investments in information technology, due to opportunities for implementing substantial projects in data centres and cloud services, as well as its highly qualified specialists and advanced legislation.
AtlasEdge announced land acquisition for 2nd data centre in Barcelona
Over in Spain, AtlasEdge has announced the acquisition of land for the development of its second data centre in Barcelona. With initial power already secured, the new facility will deliver 10MW by 2027, with the potential to increase this to 24MW. The 18,000 square-metre plot is 6km from the company’s existing Barcelona data centre.
The CEO of Atlas Edge stated “This expansion in Barcelona is another stride forward in our mission to develop sustainable capacity in fast-growing European markets. We’re thrilled to continue building our presence and serve more customers in one of the continent’s most dynamic and best-connected digital hubs.”
Ireland’s Dornan Engineering acquired by US construction firm
Huge news in Ireland as Dornan have now been acquired by the US construction firm Turner Construction Company. Dornan is a leader in the advanced technology market in Europe and Turner is long recognised as a leading player in this market in North America. Both companies have well-established long-term client relationships. Details of the deal have not been released but what an exciting time for Dornan and their partners!
Largest data centre campus project in Slough
Dutch data centre operator Yondr Group has announced the first 20MW of its 30MW data centre in Slough is ready for service. The building is located on a campus that Yondr aims to develop to eventually provide over 100MW of IT capacity. Construction of the building started in 2022, and a second data centre is also under construction at the campus, which when complete will add a further 30MW.
Once completed, Yondr claims the project will be the largest data centre campus in Slough, which is recognised internationally as a major hub for the UK data centre industry.
€5B investment for a large data centre campus outside Frankfurt
The final story today is in Germany, NTT is reportedly planning a large data centre campus outside Frankfurt. It’s reported they have plans to develop 500MW data canter across some 70 hectares, totalling a €5 billion investment. NTT already operates 4 data centres across Frankfurt along with data centres in Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg. This is a massive project which would certainly have a huge impact on the European market. I’m looking forward to keeping you up to date with any progressions.