Aquila Capital enters data centre market with Norway deal

Financial details were not disclosed.

The data centre will be powered solely by renewable energy sources, with construction due to begin in Oslo this year. Aquila is targeting delivery by the end of 2021, comprising a 20,000 m2 asset with up to ten megawatts of IT power.

A hybrid cooling system will allow energy-efficient water or air cooling to be installed, significantly reducing the data centre's operating costs and CO2 emissions. The power usage effectiveness (PUE) value used to measure data centre energy efficiency is expected to be between 1.07 and 1.2 (conventional data centres typically have a PUE value of 1.9).

Roman Rosslenbroich, CEO and co-founder of Aquila Capital said: 'With sustainable and above all energy-efficient data centres, we are making a significant contribution to reducing global CO2 emissions. At the same time, the growing data centre market offers investors an attractive investment environment with sustainable return opportunities.'

The investment is part of the long-term strategy of Aquila Capital’s new data centre business segment, which will operate under the brand name AQ Compute. AQ Compute focuses on the provision of sustainable data centres, which enable customers to outsource their server hardware for the required computing capacity.

'To ensure that our data centre investments meet the highest standards in sustainability and energy efficiency, we accompany our projects locally along the entire value chain – from development to completion and beyond,' said Carl von Hessen, investment manager at Aquila Capital.

For the implementation the project, Aquila Capital is partnering with the German IT company Cloud&Heat Technologies which specialises in the construction of energy and cost-efficient data centre solutions.

Aquila has been developing real estate in Europe since 2012, with a total transaction volume of approximately €750 mln.