New AI datacentre coming to London's Docklands

The campus will be built with sustainability in mind

A new datacentre, specifically designed for AI workloads, is being built in London’s Docklands.

The developer, Ada Infrastructure, has secured planning permission from the Newham Strategic Development Committee to build the new facility at the Royal Docks, near the ExCeL Centre.

Set to become operational in 2027, the campus will provide 210MW of IT load across three eight-storey buildings.

Ada, and owner GLP Capital Partners, says the development is designed to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent' rating for sustainability. It will feature "low-carbon building materials" and plans for a direct heating system interconnection.

The campus will also use a mixture of air and liquid cooling, which will operate without water evaporation.

Traditional datacentres consume vast amounts of water for cooling, so seeing innovation at scale is encouraging.

This week John Leonard spoke to Ian Jeffs, UK&I general manager for Lenovo's Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), about the company's progress in developing liquid cooling for datacentres.

Adopting liquid rather than direct air cooling could cut a datacentre's power use by at least 30%.

Utilities firms are paying attention to datacentres' impact, as well. Last year, Thames Water considered restricting datacentres' water use to put less strain on the supply of potable water available for residents.

As AI and cryptomining raise power consumption at datacentres around the world, the tech industry is being forced to develop new solutions to boost efficiency. Governments have been taking note, with bans, moratoriums and transparency requirements all being discussed.

For now, though, developers continue to build. Ada Infrastructure's new Docklands campus is intended to be "AI ready" from day one.