Alena Kravchenko
Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (GOOGL) unit Google will invest $1B in a new data centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire in the U.K.
The 33-acre site will create construction and technical jobs for the local community, the company said in a press release on Thursday.
“Once complete, this investment will bring crucial compute capacity to businesses across the UK, supporting AI innovation and helping to ensure reliable digital services to Google Cloud customers and Google users in the U.K. and abroad,” said Debbie Weinstein, vice president of Google and Managing Director of Google UK and Ireland.
The tech giant added that this investment builds on its $1B purchase of Central Saint Giles office in 2022, a 1 million sq ft. development in King’s Cross, and the launch of its Accessibility Discovery Centre.
Google noted that it intends to run all its data centres and campuses on carbon-free energy by 2030. In 2022, Google announced a power purchase agreement with ENGIE for offshore wind energy generated by the Moray West wind farm in Scotland.
The pact would add 100 MW of energy to the grid, and put Google’s U.K. operations on track to operate at or near 90% carbon-free energy in 2025, according to the company.
In addition, Google said that it is exploring ways to use the heat generated by data centres, and the new facility will also have provisions for off-site heat recovery.
Off-site heat recovery presents an opportunity, as it would help the company capture the heat generated by the data centre so it can be used by nearby homes and businesses, the company noted.
The data centre is also expected to use an air-based cooling system.
Google’s announcement comes after Microsoft (MSFT), reportedly, unveiled plans in November 2023 to invest about £2.5B (around $3.2B) in the U.K. over three years to underpin future growth in artificial intelligence, or AI.
