Colt begins construction of 57MW London data centres

Colt Data Centre Services (Colt DCS) has started the construction of its next data centres in London.

The company is developing two data centres with a combined 57MW capacity at a site in Hayes, West London, named London 4 Data Centre. They will be the company's third and fourth hyperscale data centres in the region and the company is aiming to attract large businesses and cloud service providers.

Colt DCS said that the site has the capacity for a third data centre of around 30MW, which would bring the total power to 87MW if it decides to expand the location.

The data centres are set to use 100% renewable energy as well as sustainable features like heat pump technology and biodiesel-fuelled generators for backup power.

Colt DCS said the new data centres will create 230 permanent jobs, 350 construction roles, and 50 apprenticeships. The company expects the first phase of this campus to be finished in the first quarter of 2025.

“We are extremely excited to announce the ground-breaking of our newest data centre in London,” said Niclas Sanfridsson, CEO at Colt DCS.

“We worked closely with the local community and stakeholders through the planning process to intricately shape all aspects of this development, to outline the economic benefits it will bring, and to explain the critical role that data centres play in all of our daily lives and most importantly what opportunities this brings for the local communities.”

Colt was granted permission in 2021 by Hillingdon council to demolish the buildings on the site and build its own data centres.

The land itself has exchanged owners numerous times since the turn of the millennium.

In 2000, the location was used by Digiplex for a data centre, according to Colo-X. The site was then acquired in 2001 by Deutsche Bank for its own data centre, before later being sold to Sentrum in 2009, although Deutsche Bank remained as the head lease on the site.

It was then advertised as Optimum Data Centres before being acquired by Trinity Data Centres according to Data Centre Dynamics. The site was then acquired by Colt, although the company hasn't made a formal announcement of the acquisition. In 2018, the commercial real estate company Knight Frank was seeking £11 million for the sale of the site.

In January 2023, Vantage Data Centers also announced it was spending £500 million to build two data centres in London. It's constructing a 48MW campus in North Acton, in the northwest region of London. It's expected to launch towards the end of 2024 and will be Vantage's 11th campus in the EMEA region.