Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation has officially opened its second data center in Almere, the Netherlands - the company’s first greenfield development in Europe.

The facility, built by Dublin-based Mercury Cloud Cover to Tier III specifications, offers 118,000 square feet of space for colocation. It supports free-cooling, and there are plans to link both Almere sites to the local district heating system in order to recycle waste heat.

Keppel T&T is a subsidiary of Keppel Corporation, a Singapore-based conglomerate that operates in telecommunications, transport, shipping, energy and property industries.

Green potential

Keppel Almere 2
Keppel Almere 2 – Keppel T&T

Almere is the most recent municipality to be granted city status in the Netherlands, having been built on the land reclaimed from Lake Yssel in the sixties. It is located just 40 km away from Amsterdam, one of the largest and most active data center markets in Europe.

According to CBRE, Amsterdam was responsible for around 22MW of colocation capacity in 2014 – almost a third of the total demand for colocation in Europe.

Keppel’s new data center was built from the ground up with sustainability in mind: the facility features a chilled water cooling system that relies on free-cooling during colder months of the year, and Dynamic Rotary Uninterruptible Power Systems (DRUPs) that replace traditional battery-based UPS, reducing chemical waste.

Keppel T&T plans to work with the local government to integrate both data centers in Almere into a single campus that draws on nearby green energy from Flevoland Valley wind turbines, uses water for cooling from Hoge Vaart canal and recycles waste heat, feeding it into a district heating network.

“As we grow our presence in Europe, we seek to do so sustainably. Across Europe and Asia-Pacific, Keppel T&T’s best-in-class colocation data centers feature environmentally conscious designs that maximize energy efficiency while meeting stringent customer requirements,” said Thomas Pang, CEO of Keppel T&T.

In November 2014, the company announced that it had already signed a tenant for 40 percent of capacity at Almere 2.

Together with assets owned through Keppel DC REIT, Keppel T&T operates a global portfolio of 11 data centers located in key technology hubs across Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Last week, Keppel DC REIT announced acquisition of the group’s first data center property in Germany – the upcoming mainCubes facility near Frankfurt. It is expected to come into operation sometime in 2018.