Bulk Data Centers Plan Expansion to Nordic DCs
By Calum Elliott
September 21, 2022
Bulk Data Centers, one of the Nordics’ leading providers of ultra-scalable, highly connected and sustainable data centres, has announced a number of expansion projects across its data centre sites in Norway. With investment focused on ensuring long-term availability of power and land providing highly connected and scalable sites powered by 100% renewable energy.
Set within the backdrop of many European locations struggling with power constraints, while demand for data centre capacity is increasing, Bulk has completed the installation of the N01 on-site substation delivering 125MVA of dual connections to the adjacent Kristiansand substation.
Generation comes from nearby large-scale hydroelectric power plants and provides customers immediate access to 100MW of power, ensuring a resilient low-carbon energy source, with significant opportunities for future scale.
The power upgrade is the first part of a wider scheme that will eventually see the N01 campus connect to 1GW of power for data centre customers.
To meet demand for low-cost and renewable-powered data centre capacity, the operator also confirmed that construction has commenced on its second data centre at the NO1 campus, offering an additional 10MW of IT capacity. In concert, this Autumn a further 160,000 meters of levelled land will be completed at the site, in readiness for a 40MW data centre planned for construction next year.
The operator’s expansion is not just centred on international scale deployments but also on the increasing demand for highly connected secure data centre services. And following strong regional growth from enterprise and system integrators, Bulk Data Centers completed construction of a further 1.5 MW of whitespace at its Oslo facility – OS-IX, which earlier this year announced it will be home to DE-CIX (Internet Exchange), building on the already highly connected facility. These combined projects reaffirm Bulk’s strategy to scale a pan-Nordic platform of sustainable data centres.
“While demand for digital services and data centres are increasing, Europe is in the midst of an energy crisis that encompasses price, power security and scalability,” said Rob Elder, Vice President Data Centres. “The growth of digitalisation often appears at odds in the current climate, to both reduce demand on the grid and reduce carbon emissions of data centres.
“Customers cannot wait years and with these projects we continue to demonstrate how Bulk is leading the way in investing in sustainable solutions, which offer customers high connected scalable options at much lower costs to Europe and with almost unlimited scale.”
All of the projects form part of Bulk Data Centers commitment to establishing a sustainable industrial cluster around N01 and OS-IX by utilising the excess heat. The project at OS-IX connects to an adjacent business and at N01 heat reuse will be used for a range of local companies, including an Industrial Real Estate business.