Google is investing $1 billion (€919 million) to build a new 33-hectare data centre in the United Kingdom.
The new 33-hectare data centre will be built in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire. With this data centre, the tech giant aims to bring more computing power capacity to the UK for customers. This is to drive innovation in AI and ensure that Google Cloud customers and other end users in the UK and abroad can benefit from reliable digital services.
Sustainability with wind energy
The new data centre is highly sustainable, in line with Google’s strategy to make its data centres carbon-neutral by 2030. Around sustainability, it should also benefit from the recent contract between the tech giant and energy provider ENGIE. This will see 100 megawatts (MW) of energy added to the power grid, generated by the ENGIE Moray West wind farm in Scotland. With this wind energy, Google expects to be 90 per cent carbon neutral in the UK by 2025.
Other sustainable solutions in the new data centre include air cooling and technology for off-site reuse of generated waste heat. This waste heat will benefit residents and businesses in Waltham Cross.
Furthermore, the construction and technical operation of the data centre are intended to generate new jobs locally.
The construction of the data centre is part of more recent (infrastructure) investments by Google in the UK. In 2022, Google bought its Central Saint Giles office in London for $1 billion and $1 million was invested in developing office space in King’s Cross, London. In addition, the tech giant launched a so-called Accessibility Discovery Centre in the UK, and the undersea Grace Hopper cable connecting the UK to the US and Spain was built in 2021.
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