09 November 2021

Irish-owned Echelon Data Centres has inked a £182m deal with an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group to jointly buy and construct its second UK data centre, LCY20.

Based in Chesham in Buckinghamshire, the site will have a capacity of 30MW and it joins Echelon’s LCY10 site, a 20MW facility in London’s Docklands.

The Irish firm said that power is already fully installed on the LCY20 site meaning the data centre capacity can be delivered by late 2022, ahead of most other London area data centres.

Echelon, which now has six sites across Ireland and the UK with a total potential capacity of up to 500MW, believes that all data centre infrastructure should be powered by 100% renewable energy.

However, the company said it recognises that, in the short to medium term, hybrid solutions (such as onsite gas-fired peaking plants) may be necessary to support over-burdened grid infrastructure and to assist the transition to a wholly renewablysupplied grid system.