Teraco, the The South African data center operator, owned by Digital Realty, has raised a R8 billion syndicated loan and announced it will build a 40MW ‘hyperscale’ data center in Johannesburg.
The new data center, with 40 MW of “critical power”, will be built on Teraco’s Isando campus near OR Tambo International Airport.
The facility, known as JB7, is expected to be completed in 2026 and will feature the latest environmentally sustainable cooling and water management designs, Teraco said in a statement on Wednesday. The expansion will increase the capacity of the Isando campus to 110 MW of critical power load.
The JB7 facility is Teraco’s ninth data center development.
The new syndicated loan facility has been arranged through Absa – a long-time backer of Teraco – and other financial institutions, with the money being used to finance JB7 and other construction projects.
“Part of this loan will be in addition to existing loans used to finance Teraco’s renewable energy generation program… This includes a 120MW utility-scale solar PV generation plant that will feed the Eskom network and transmit power will control multiple municipal networks,” the company said.
“We continue to receive strong support from the lending community. The new syndication was widely oversubscribed, which is an expression of confidence from our local institutional financing partners in our data center platform, growth path and ESG (environment, social and governance) initiatives,” said Teraco chief financial officer Samuel Erwin in the statement.
Eight data halls
JB7 is expected to comprise a 71,000 square meter building structure, equipped with 68 MVA of electricity supply, which in turn is expected to supply 40 MW of critical power to the site. It is located on the Isando campus next to JB1, JB3 and JB5.
According to Teraco, the Isando campus is Africa’s most interconnected data center location, with more than 16,500 connections. JB7 will be built in one phase and is expected to include eight data halls of 1,500 square meters.
Read: Largest data centers in South Africa – and who owns them
“The development of the new data center is being built in accordance with global hyperscale requirements,” the report said. “JB7 plans to use environmentally conscious designs and monitoring technology to reduce water consumption and improve energy efficiency. It will also provide liquid-to-air and liquid-to-liquid cooling for high-density cloud and AI deployments.”
It says JB7 is designed to minimize its carbon footprint. “It will feature the latest state-of-the-art cooling designs with a closed loop chilled water system and direct free air cooling in the data halls.”
JB7 will increase the critical power load capacity of Teraco facilities to 228 MW, including the Isando campus (110 MW), Bredell campus (63 MW), Cape Town campus (53 MW) and the Durban data center (2 MW). — (c) NewsCentral Media 2024
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