Heat re-use at Datum's Manchester site

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Datum is harnessing heat re-use capabilities in the development of its new Manchester data centre as part of project to maximise efficiencies and uphold ESG principles.

Datum has announced that its new Manchester data centre is being developed with heat re-use capabilities as part of the company’s wider sustainability strategy. The scheme will see the new facility harness waste heat for conditioning, reuse and delivery to local projects in the Wythenshawe area of Manchester.

The system is being designed so that heat exchangers can be used to transfer the thermal load of the data centre cooling loop to a local community heating network via a heat pump system, which will also reduce the amount of energy needed to deliver the required data centre cooling operation, therefore providing a double benefit. The new facility is targeting a PUE of 1.2.

The new data centre (MCR2) is being developed next door to Datum’s existing Manchester facility and the most up to date sustainability best practices and standards are being embedded across all parts of the build process, from design to implementation.

The facility will be powered using clean energy from renewable sources with green certificates and solar PV roof panels. The PV system will generate over 83,000 kWh/yr with a CO2 emissions reduction of over 7.4 tonnes annually. A chilled water-cooling system with free cooling technology will be adopted and renewable HVO (hydrogenated vegetable oil) biofuels will fuel the emergency generators. The new data centre has been specifically designed to handle an external ambient temperature of 40+°C, to help mitigate climate change risks related to extreme heat.

The new site involves demolishing an existing building and designing a newer, more modern, energy efficient facility. This was determined to be the most environmentally efficient solution to support expansion. During construction, materials will be sourced from local suppliers wherever possible. The works will avoid nighttime and high traffic hours to minimise noise impact. The waste management program will ensure that all waste from the demolished building is handled efficiently and recycled where possible. The project also includes a biodiversity plan to protect nature and reverse the degradation of ecosystems.

The project is expected to support jobs for 15 full time employees including suppliers, and the data centre facility will offer over 50,000 sq ft of enterprise-grade colocation space with 2N power redundancy, 100% 24/7 uptime, ISO27001 certification and NSI Gold Approved BS5979 security.

We have worked hard to ensure that sustainability principles are embedded at every stage of the development of our MCR2 facility. As a data centre provider, we have a responsibility to our clients to ensure that continuous capacity is available and is delivered sustainably, supporting clients as they strive to meet their ESG targets. We hope to be able to expand fast enough to meet demand in the Manchester region, so that we can support our clients’ growth through resilient, secure and dependable data centre services and hosting solutions

Matt Edgley, Chief Operating Officer for Datum

About Datum

Datum Datacentres provides enterprise grade colocation through its network of sustainable, carrier neutral data centres. A platform for digital transformation, the firm works with its ecosystem of partners to provide solutions that support long-term business growth whilst helping clients to achieve their ESG goals. Backed by UBS Asset Management, Datum acquired Manchester data centre provider, Teledata, in 2022. The Datum Group’s data centre portfolio consists of two built and operational data centres (FRN1 in Farnborough and MCR1 in Manchester) with two further facilities in the pipeline (FRN2 and MCR2). The firm’s secure and resilient facilities are trusted by an impressive and growing client list of organisations from the private and public sectors, serving vertical markets from finance and insurance through IT security services, defence, and engineering, and including companies from the FTSE 250 and Fortune 500.

Media contact:
Anna Nicholls
Head of Marketing
anna.nicholls@datum.co.uk
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