Google reveals new $1bn UK data center as AI demand soars
Google has revealed plans to construct a brand new data center in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, UK, as part of its ongoing commitment to increase the compute power that underpins many of its products.
The 33-acre site, which Google bought in October 2020, will be used to power digital services including Google Cloud, Search, Maps, and Google Workspace, which includes the company’s free office apps and Gmail.
The investment, which is said to be worth $1 billion (£789 million), is hoped to bring a flush of new jobs to the area as well as help the UK’s economy more broadly. Google already employs around 7,000 workers in the UK.
Google’s $1bn data center will be built in Hertfordshire, UK
Ruth Porat, Alphabet and Google’s CFO, emphasized the pivotal role of data centers in powering widely used services such as Google Workspace. She added:
“This new data centre will help meet growing demand for our AI and cloud services and bring crucial compute capacity to businesses across the UK while creating construction and technical jobs for the local community.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak praised the investment, adding: “Foreign investment creates jobs and grows all regions of our economy and investments like this will help to drive growth in the decade ahead.”
Google’s commitment to sustainability was also evident in its announcement, with the company claiming to have some of the most efficient data centers in the world.
The company has plans to run all of its data centers and campuses on renewable energy, and has already announced its power purchase agreement for offshore wind energy in Scotland, which accounts for around 100MW of clean energy.
As construction gets underway, Google has confirmed that its new Hertfordshire data center will feature off-site heat recovery as well as an air-based cooling system, which will reduce the site’s reliance on water as a natural resource.
