£5.2 million green investment for Citi data centre

The UK’s Green Investment Bank (GIB) said today it will finance the delivery of Citi Group’s energy efficiency project planned for its London-based data centre.

A statement from the GIB said its fund manager, Sustainable Development Capital (SDCL), will finance the “first of a kind” project for the banking sector which involves the installation of a Combined Cooling and Power (CCP) system, energy efficient cooling units and efficiency improvements to the building’s air conditioning system to cut energy use at the centre by 10 per cent.

The CCP system will also generate almost 24,000 MWh annually, 71 per cent of electricity required by the centre, while cooling the servers housed there. Citi currently uses mains electricity from the national grid for its energy intensive data centre as well as back-up diesel generators.

The UK is the third largest consumer of data centre-related energy in the world, at approximately 3GW, making it one of the largest consumers of energy in the economy. The banking sector currently accounts for the greatest percentage of overall UK data centre energy use. 

Chief executive of GIB, Shaun Kingsbury said: “The IT industry is one of the most energy intensive sectors globally, second only to aviation. Energy can represent up to 80% of the cost of running a data centre, so they provide an important opportunity for energy efficiency measures. I am pleased that we have been able to support the first energy efficiency project at a UK data centre and hope that this is the first of many such projects.”

Head of Global Building Operations Group, Citi Realty Services, John Killey said: “SDCL has developed a solution for Citi that provides us with sustainable on-site cooling and power that requires no upfront capital expenditure and that creates enduring savings in our annual operation costs and supports us in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.”