Telehouse Europe announced that Telehouse West, its £80 million data center currently being built in London's docklands and that is due to come on stream in March 2010 will transform generated waste heat into energy for local houses.

The move will see Telehouse Europe mitigate the carbon footprint of its nine-storey Telehouse West data center at the East India Docks by exporting waste heat for use in nearby homes and businesses, a move which has received approval from the Greater London Authority.

Telehouse West is the first major data center to gain planning permission in London since stringent sustainability requirements were written into the city's legislation, the company said.

See the latest edition of DatacenterDynamics FOCUS for an interview with Bob Harris and a case study on the Telehouse West project.

The partnership will see Telehouse West save up to 1,110 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum and provide up to nine megawatts of power for the local neighbourhood. The disposal of waste heat from cooling systems is one of the most significant sustainability issues associated with data storage. 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. Secure data facilities are now vital to every area of modern business. Organisations throughout the world will be able to turn to Telehouse West for all their data storage needs knowing that they will be helping the local community and the environment."

Mr Kieran Rushe of Planning Consultants Dalton Warner Davis said: "This has been one of the fastest projects of this type of complexity from submission to award. At his Stage 2 planning assessment the Mayor recognised that the Telehouse proposal has the potential to mitigate the proposed development's contribution to the urban heat island effect and provide impetus for a district heat network in the area. The GLA said that the agreed solution represents the best possible outcome within the specific constraints of the scheme and accords with the objectives of London Plan policy 4A.6."

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." WSP Group prepared a detailed environmental impact assessment for the project and worked on the fire, acoustic, security, transport and VT engineering aspects of the project. FM is the Structural Engineer on the project. MACE is the main contractor for the 19,000 m2 building, which is due for completion in 2010.