News

Green Datacenter From Telehouse Europe To Power London Homes & Businesses

May 13, 2009 by Jeff Shepard

WSP Group and Telehouse Europe announced that Telehouse West, a new €80 million state-of-the-art data center, will transform generated waste heat into energy for London Docklands community. The move will see Telehouse Europe mitigate the carbon footprint of its nine-story, 19,000 square meter facility – Telehouse West in London’s Docklands by exporting waste heat for use in nearby homes and businesses, a move which has received approval from the Greater London Authority.

Telehouse Europe is the first major data center to gain planning permission in London since stringent sustainability requirements were written into the city’s legislation. One of the stated reasons for the project’s approval was the range of innovative green schemes Telehouse and the WSP Group, a London-based international sustainability and engineering consultancy, have put into action.

The partnership will see Telehouse West save up to 1,110 tons of CO2 emissions per annum and provide up to nine megawatts of power for the local neighborhood. The energy savings will equate to boiling 3,000 kettles continuously. The disposal of waste heat from cooling systems is one of the most significant sustainability issues associated with data storage. It is stated that this will be the first time a heat export strategy has been introduced in the UK for this type of data center facility.

Commenting on the announcement Mr Bob Harris, Technical Services Director of Telehouse Europe, said: "We are very proud of the new €80 million Telehouse West facility, not only will it offer an innovative way to capture and repurpose waste heat, but the facility will also ease the capacity crunch. We recognize that any attempt to address the lack of space within the data center industry has to be undertaken with a level of environmental awareness. By making good use of the waste heat from the facility, we can minimize the environmental impact of Telehouse West and provide a valuable resource to the local community."

Telehouse Europe’s existing data centers in London and Paris were the first purpose-built colocation facilities to gain ISO 14001:2004, the internationally recognized standard for environmental management. Telehouse Operates a robust management framework to deliver continuous improvement in environmental performance – a key issue for the whole data center industry.

Martyn Bishop, Senior Technical Director at WSP Buildings, said: "Our multi-disciplinary team has worked on a solution which integrates various aspects of the new building to reduce its environmental impact considerably. It demonstrates that taking a holistic view pays dividends."