Echelon Data Centres, the Irish-owned company committed to delivering cleanly-powered and sustainable large-scale data center assets, has announced a USD 250 million agreement with an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group to jointly acquire and construct its second UK data center, LCY20.
LCY20, which will have a capacity of 30MW, will join LCY10, a 20MW facility in London’s Docklands, in Echelon and Starwood Capital’s growing portfolio of DC infrastructure. Power is already fully installed on the LCY20 site meaning the DC capacity can be delivered by late 2022, ahead of most other London area data centers.
Launched in 2019, Echelon Data Centres now has six sites across Ireland and the UK with a total potential capacity of up to 500MW. Its first two sites in Ireland – DUB10 (Clondalkin) and DUB20 (Arklow) – with capacities of 90MW and 100MW respectively, will be the subject of investment in the region of €1bn, and will create more than 1,000 jobs. Its third and fourth sites – DUB30 (Arklow) and DUB40 (Grange Castle) – will have similar capacities and represent similar levels of investment.
Echelon’s philosophy is that all data center infrastructure should be powered by 100% renewable energy, however, the company recognises that – in the short to medium term – halfway house solutions (such as on-site gas-fired peaking plants) may be necessary to support over-burdened grid infrastructure and to assist the transition to a wholly renewably-supplied grid system. Echelon’s DUB20 site will host a partnership with SSE Renewables which will bring 520MW of wind power into the grid and will also be home to a biogas plant.
Announcing the joint acquisition with Starwood Capital, Niall Molloy, CEO of Echelon Data Centres, welcomed the opportunity to bring Echelon’s thinking and operational philosophy to bear on the UK data center landscape with the delivery of Echelon LCY20.
“Data centers are essential infrastructure – now, post-pandemic, more than ever. If we are to continue to benefit from low-cost, reliable and time-saving tech such as Zoom and Teams, if we’re to enjoy the speed of 5G, if we are to stream on-demand and if we are to look forward to the future of AI and the IoT, then increasing data center capacity is a given.
“Echelon Data Centres is committed to providing that capacity sustainably – taking into account its responsibilities to people, the community, the economy and to the environment – particularly in the area of power. “We understand that powering a data center with 100% renewable energy cannot happen overnight, however, our focus is on ways of achieving the goal and then mitigating impacts as we progress towards it. We are delighted to expand our very successful relationship with Starwood Capital in delivering this latest large scale Data Center campus”
