Africa Data Centres announces additional 6MW of capacity now available in Cape Town

Africa Data Centres, a Cassava Technologies company, has announced the expansion of its CPT1 facility in Cape Town.

As part of the expansion, the data centre giant is adding three new, state-of-the-art halls in new areas of the campus and adding a further 6 MW of IT load, effectively doubling its current capacity.

The new expansion was implemented with support from the United States (US) in the form of a loan of up to $300 million from the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to Africa Data Centres.

According to Hardy Pemhiwa, President and CEO of Cassava Group, “This expansion of Africa Data Centres is a response to the growing demand for colocation capacity in South Africa. Cape Town is not only the second largest economy in South Africa, but also the de facto software and technology hub in South Africa.”

The company is seeing tremendous growth in the South African data centre market as domestic and international cloud and IT service providers seek to expand their presence in the region.

In terms of size, the expansion adds 1,000 racks of white space, or space available for rent to customers, although the physical location is much larger. It consists of two additional colocation data halls and one hyperscale hall.

The additional halls were built using a state-of-the-art, modular design pioneered by Africa Data Centres, which enables rapid scalability.

In addition, this data centre boasts hybrid cooling technology that supports both air and liquid cooling. It is one of the most efficient and sustainable data centres ever built in South Africa. It is powered by renewable energy, boasts a water efficiency of 0 due to the lack of water consumption by the IT infrastructure, and also has an impressive energy efficiency rating.

Africa Data Centres’ CPT1 facility is pioneering the use of solar power on wheels in the market. This innovation is made possible by a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) signed in March last year with Distributed Power Africa, part of the Cassava Technologies group. Africa Data Centres is the first company to successfully deploy this groundbreaking technology in Africa, making it the first of its kind on the continent.

“The introduction of wheeled solar power at CPT1 offers significant benefits to our customers, providing a truly sustainable data centre solution. As demand for data continues to grow rapidly across Africa, on a continent where power supplies are frequently interrupted, the need for reliable, cost-effective and sustainable energy has never been more critical,” said Finhai Munzara, Interim CEO of Africa Data Centres.

By using renewable energy, he says the CPT1 facility not only provides consistent power but also supports sustainable operations, helping customers achieve their environmental goals. “Our state-of-the-art facility reduces reliance on non-renewable energy sources, setting a new standard for sustainability in the data center industry.”

Munzara adds that Cape Town is a prime location for colocation facilities as it is within walking distance of all submarine cable landing stations. In addition, the Cape Town facility houses the Cape Town Internet Exchange (CINX), which makes peering between multiple regions more accessible, efficient and manageable. It also facilitates direct connections between networks, enabling more efficient data flow and reduced latency, providing our users with a faster, more responsive online experience.

Munzara says the expansion increases the company’s data centre capacity in South Africa and is an integral part of the company’s investment plans to open several additional data centres across the continent.

www.africadatacentres.com