Equinix revealed as occupant of £3.9B UK datacenter campus

Equinix will occupy a massive datacenter campus near London's M25, investing £3.9 billion ($5.1 billion) in the 85-acre (0.34 square kilometers) Hertfordshire plot close to South Mimms services. The planning application for the project was filed last year by a company called DC01 UK Ltd. The site will feature three facilities …

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Add to the UK economy....

So where does the money come from?

The local council could introduce £1000 parking charges and add billions to the UK economy

[Anonymous Coward]

Greenwash hogwash

>will use 100 percent renewable energy

Anyone know where they will be buying their renewable energy from when the sun ain't shinin' & the wind ain't blowin'? From that North American forest burnin' obscenity that is Drax? Or biodigesters which are almost as bad?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Greenwash hogwash

Most likely nuclear energy

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Greenwash hogwash

Most likely they buy some sort of complex financial contract on solar/wind power when there is over production and the price is cheap - and so claim that they purchased >100% of the annual power usage while relying on continual 24x7 grid power to actually run their business

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Greenwash hogwash

Yes. That sort of sleight of hand sounds very plausible. Thank you.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Greenwash hogwash

Thanks for the suggestion but it can't be nuclear. Nuclear is clean and also nowadays often gets categorised as green, but it definitely can't be said to be renewable.

So I think answer must be some sort of sleight of hand as outlined above or Drax and/or lots of biodigesters which will be interesting because they've already got commitments to supply "renewable" energy to distribution companies and I think their max output is ~ 3.5GW.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Greenwash hogwash

Another Mega Datacentre campus in Londonshire. Just what everyone wants competition for water and electricity.

If they built it in Scotland there is over 100% renewable electricity and in most places abundant water.

With modern comms the need for close location not much of a thing anymore- esp. as much AWS Production load is in Dublin and Azure in Wales.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Greenwash hogwash

We were looking at expanding our distribution centre facilities in Oxfordshire next year but were told by our power people that due to new data centres in the area there is no additional industrial power available for *at least* the next five years!

[Dwarf]

Re: Greenwash hogwash

The energy is provided by the hot air from politicians mouths, this is an endless supply of energy and its completely green, just like many of the politicians.

[elsergiovolador]

Literacy

Liz Kendall calls it a “huge win for Britain,” which tells you everything about the government’s economic literacy. If you think a £3.9 billion capital outlay that leaves the country in permanent debt to a US landlord is a win, you shouldn’t be anywhere near a calculator, let alone the Treasury bench.

The intellectual bankruptcy runs deep: ministers now confuse hosting American cloud racks with “AI leadership,” as if plugging GPUs into someone else’s sockets counts as innovation.

In the end, Britain provides the land, the power, the cooling, the cheerleaders - and gets back a handful of jobs and a warm sense of being “open for business.” Translation: open for plunder.

[VoiceOfTruth]

Re: Literacy

We will read in years to come how Equinix somehow pays less tax than your local shoe shop. All legally, above board.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Literacy

> Equinix somehow pays less tax than your local shoe shop.

That's very unlikely, they will pay no tax.

While receiving incentive payments for the millions they are collecting from their customers, which is remember a contribution to the economy

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Literacy

They will be claiming Capex back as deductible tax offset for years to come.

[Darkedge]

water usage of office-building levels

"water usage of office-building levels" - so for a 85 ACRE site that's still going to be a heck of a lot of water...

[The commentard formerly known as Mister_C]

Re: water usage of office-building levels

bet you a pound against a piece of shit that there will be zero rainwater harvest on that 85 acres to cover the water requirement, all their water usage will be mains (i.e. drinking water quality).

and don't get me started on where their "renewable" elastic trickery could be better used.

TL;DR - taking lots , giving nothing.