A new data center provider has launched, targeting deployments in empty offices in cities.

London-based EdgeNebula aims to utilize stranded urban power and repurposed buildings.

The company said it can convert underutilized or vacant urban real estate, such as office buildings, into data centers that will “enable a city’s power grid to stand up to the energy demands of the AI boom.”

The conversion reportedly takes as little as two months.

EdgeNebula's modular deployments will apparently use liquid cooling and offer their waste heat to the host building or local district heating networks. Further details weren’t shared.

Formed this year, EdgeNebula is led by Peter Hannaford, previously chairman at recruitment firm Datacenter People and VP of data centers and alliances at Schneider Electric before that.

“Destroying forests and wildlife habitats and plowing up fields to build massive data centers, which then require vast amounts of electricity and water, is simply not sustainable,” Hannaford said. “The rapid advancement of AI is driving unprecedented demand for this infrastructure, making it more critical than ever to respond with sustainable, scalable solutions that prioritize security. EdgeNebula is excited to lead this transformation, reimagining data center construction and operations to meet the urgent needs of the AI age and our planet.”

Office occupancy rates in many cities are yet to recover to where they were before the Covid-19 pandemic. Operators such as ResetData and T.Loop are looking to deploy small data centers – often immersion cooling tanks – at office sites. Raeden in the US is also aiming to deploy data centers within office buildings.