UK Grid invests £10m in new storage space

DATA centre provider UK Grid is investing £10m in a new 27,000 sq ft site in Manchester.

The company says the facility, which houses racks of digital storage space, will be carbon neutral as it is offsetting its carbon emissions by contributing to a forestry project at a farm in Scotland owned by its UK Grid Renewables subsidiary.

The investment, spread over three to five years, will create 15 new jobs at the company which also operates a data storage facility in London.

UK Grid now has around 50,000 sq ft of carbon neutral data centre space and says it has more capacity than any of its competitors in the North. From next year the company plans to offer carbon off-setting to other data centre providers.

Chief executive Rob Garbutt said: “The launch of the Parkway 2 site is a proud moment for UK Grid, as it is what we have been working towards for a number of years. Not only have we created the largest portfolio of data centre space in the North, but all of the capacity is carbon neutral. This is something no other company in our sector can provide, and offers our clients and customers an environmentally sound product.

“We are targeting a mix of SMEs and corporate businesses who are looking for data centre space, and the site will be in full operation by February 2011. However, customers are already buying space and our sales team has been run off their feet which is a fantastic sign.”

UK Grid is not the only Internet-related business championing its green credentials, two weeks ago UkFast, the Manchester-based web hosting company,revealed plans to offer customers a carbon-neutral service. The firm is also investing heavily in hydro-electric power.