Carinae Group has signed a joint venture deal which will see Equinix complete its Patin Etix data center and operate it under a commercial partnership. 

The site, formally owned by French rail company SNCF is located approximately 10km from La Defense, Paris' financial sector. It was formally used as a rail and road sorting depot for the French postal service. Trains would pull directly into the building and trucks would drive onto the roof. 

'The building was perfect for a data center. It has the underlying strength necessary to carry heavy loads,'Michael Ourabah, co-founder of the Carinae Group told DatacenterDynamics.

The total site coverage is 25,000sq mt with 11,500sq mt of white space broken into 16 halls. 

'Power capacity is 32 MW in 20KV, fully redundant UPS power delivery N+1 (use of various electricity generators with an autonomy of 72 hours), electricity supply through next generation generators. Full Power Capacity in the hosting rooms will be 20MW.'

At a rack level design is for 2KW per rack average with capacity to rise to 10KW. The back up generators are positioned on the roof ÔÇô something for which the company needed special permission from local government Town hall authorities because if they all kick in at once it will sound like a jet taking off, said Ourabah. 

One aspect of the design, and an area of discussion with the Pantin and Bobigny Town Halls was the use of the building's surplus energy to channel residual server heat into the heating system of their eco-neighborhoods. 'As well as providing less costly home heating, this eco-responsible initiative will "depollute"70% of the CO2 and radioactive waste produced in supplying the DataCenter's electricity,' the company said in a statement.  

The design PUE is 1.5 with the overall design being Tier III with Tier IV elements.

Concrete was poured approximately two months ago and the construction has begun with the target date for customer occupation being mid 2012. 

Ourabah said: 'The Carinae Group had attracted investors for the development when Equinix approached in November last year as it was seeking additional capacity in the Paris market.' 

'They are taking over the completion of the project and will market it. This is a commercial joint venture with them.'