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.