Global colocation provider, Telehouse, has officially opened a fifth data centre at its Frankfurt campus in Germany.
‘Building M’ launched in October and has increased capacity at the digital hub of continental Europe by a total of 4.5 megawatts.
The building adds a further 2,200 square metres of data centre space across three floors to the campus, which now totals more than 50,000 square metres of data centre space for all requirements, from single racks to dedicated data centre areas.
The development forms part of Telehouse’s wider European expansion plan as well as responding to a sharp growth in demand from German companies for external computing power, as they continue to invest in future-proof cloud applications. The greater Frankfurt area remains the most important location for data centres in Germany and the largest network node in Europe.
Due to the enormous demand, Building M is already fully leased and further expansion of the site is now in the planning phase. The centrally located campus still offers sufficient space for future development.
Telehouse Germany is also setting new standards in sustainability. The waste heat generated by all buildings on the Frankfurt campus will be used to supply the neighbouring newly created ‘FRANKY’ residential quarter with district heating. At approximately 51,000 square metres, the quarter offers space for around 3,000 people with 93,000 square metres of living space in 1,300 residential units.
This heat recovery process can provide more than 60% of the annual energy requirement for heating homes and water in the community, using around 2% of the waste heat from the Telehouse data centres. The additional demand is fed into the district heating network from the combined heat and power plant of the Frankfurt-based utility company Manova.
At around 400 tonnes of CO2, the emission savings are approximately 50% compared to conventional local gas-based heating. As a result of this initiative, Telehouse Germany is making a significant contribution to achieving the ‘KfW Efficiency House 55’ standard for the entire residential district.
Telehouse Europe is exploring similar opportunities in the UK and is already reusing heat at its Magny-Les-Hameaux campus in Paris.
“It’s particularly important for us to be able to combine efficiency, performance and safety with a contribution to environmental protection in the interest of our customers,” explains Dr. Béla Waldhauser, Managing Director of Telehouse Deutschland GmbH. “In this way, we are assuming responsibility both locally and globally.”
