Scientists with a French public research institution are trying to predict what kinds of plants will survive in the nation's climate in 2050. The project requires a simulation of what the researchers think the future climate is going to be like.

European data center provider TelecityGroup helped them create such an eco-system within an arboretum adjacent to the company's new data center in Paris. The arboretum will be heated by waste heat generated from servers in the facility.

Scientists from the French National Institute for Agricultural Research will create the climate they expect to prevail in 2050 in France within the Climate Change Arboretum. In the arboretum, they will grow and study plants from around the world to isolate those that will be most adaptable to the future climate.

The company announced opening of its new Paris data center, dubbed Condorcet, on Friday, saying it was one of the most advanced and energy efficient data centers in Europe.

"The exponential growth in customer demand for data centre power, space and connectivity in France reflects the crucial importance of the digital economy to modern society," TelecityGroup France CEO Stéphane Duproz said in a statement. "As industry leaders, our data centers need to be designed to be as energy efficient as possible in order to minimize the environmental impact of our activities."

The facility will provide about 36,600 square feet of data center floor, with 6.4 MW of power available to customers. TelecityGroup invested €48 million into the project - the company's 23rd data center in Europe and third in Paris.

The Paris market is third in the amount of fully fitted and shell-and-core data center space in Europe, following London and Frankfurt. As of the end of third quarter of 2009, 15 percent of all available carrier-neutral space in Europe was in the Paris market, compared with 41 percent in London and 28 percent in Frankfurt, according to the latest report on European markets by CB Richard Ellis Research.

Total data center stock in Europe stood at about 6.86 million square feet at the end of third quarter. Of that amount, 72 percent was fully fitted and the rest was shell-and-core only, according to CBRE.