Kao Data announced it has secured an extensive, industrial-scale site for redevelopment at Kenwood Point, Manchester, with the aim of establishing a new 40MW data centre.
“The development represents an investment of £350m, with the facility set to follow Kao Data’s award-winning design, energy efficiency and sustainability ethos, and include heat re-use capabilities,” said Kao Data.
“This addition to Manchester’s technology ecosystem will help accelerate the city’s position as a leading tech hub, and support its business and research communities following the government’s commitment to invest £3.5 billion in the future of UK science and tech.”
Kao Data said that following the acquisition of two new data centres last year, the move represents the next phase in the continued expansion of its platform, with Manchester named “as the first of its new Tier II locations” in Europe.
“The latest phase of Kao Data’s platform expansion has seen the company secure a 39,000m2 ex-industrial site for sustainable redevelopment at Kenwood Point, Manchester,” said Kao Data.
“The new data centre, which is planned to become operational in late 2025, will provide space for nine data halls, creating a leading infrastructure hub to support Greater Manchester’s growing technology ecosystem and the UK’s largest high performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors outside of London and the Oxford-Cambridge arc.
“Kao Data’s first data centre in the North of England will follow the organisations award-winning high performance design, efficiency and sustainability ethos, providing a sustainable, OCP-Ready and NVIDIA-DGX Ready certified infrastructure platform for advanced computing.
“For example, the facility will deliver an industry-leading PUE of 1.2, be powered by 100% renewable energy, and utilise hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) in its generators – providing the highest-grade, sustainable data centre capacity in the region.
“Furthermore, the data centre will be precision-engineered to incorporate heat re-use capabilities, supporting local communities in its immediate vicinity with a valuable resource in the wake of the cost-of-living crisis.”
Kao Data Chief Commercial Officer Spencer Lamb said: “Our move into Manchester marks an important next step in the continued evolution of our organisation, and we’re excited to bring our industry-leading data centre platform to one of the UK’s most influential technology and business hubs.
“We believe our new facility will set a new standard for sustainable data centres within the region and will provide a piece of foundational infrastructure that supports both Northern England’s advanced computing clusters, and the UK Governments’ ambitions to become a technological and economic powerhouse for HPC and AI.”