Start Campus has secured additional power for its Sines DC in Lisbon, Portugal, bringing its total potential IT capacity to 1.2GW.
According to the company, the campus is now the largest colocation site with fully secured grid power. The additional capacity, increasing the site from 495MW, has been provided by REN, the Portuguese transmission system operator.
The Sines DC campus will be located south of Lisbon and is set to comprise six buildings once fully constructed.
The first building with an IT capacity of 14MW is expected to be operational by Q4 of 2024. This is to be expanded to 26MW through the use of liquid cooling technologies.
The remaining five buildings will each support up to 240 MW of IT capacity and will be constructed sequentially, with SIN02 ready for service in 2026. All buildings are expected to be operational by 2030.
The campus will use Nautilus cooling technology, enabling the company to leverage the surrounding seawater for a more environmentally friendly cooling solution.
Rob Dunn, CEO of Start Campus, said: “Securing this additional grid capacity marks a significant milestone for Start Campus. The scale of Sines DC, coupled with our unique seawater cooling solution, creates an unprecedented offering that sets new standards for the industry. I am proud to deliver a solution that sustainably meets the evolving needs of our customers.”
Construction on the project commenced in April 2022. Since then, the development has faced several hurdles after it was involved in a corruption scandal that brought down the Portuguese government and saw several Start Campus executives arrested.
That corruption investigation surrounded the "misuse of funds, active and passive corruption by political figures, and influence peddling” involving lithium mining concessions, a hydrogen production project, and the Start data center campus.
Accusations were later made that the site was damaging natural habitats protected by Portuguese and European legislation as its first data center on the site in Sines was built on top of a wetland area identified as a priority habitat, despite Start's promises not to do so, according to a study by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF).
Start responded to these accusations, stating that it had been instructed to safeguard species of heather (erica cirialis and erica erigena) plants, and the company worked with experts on the local habitat to do so.
The plants were removed from the construction site and put into a nursery along with around 200 tonnes of soil. The company says they have thrived in their temporary home and added that they will be later returned to the Nest site.
In July 2024, Robert Dunn was appointed as permanent CEO, having served as the interim CEO since November 2023.
