Wood chips power Rackspace ‘Green’ Data Centre

Rackspace Hosting, provider of IT hosting services, has announced that it has begun installing equipment in its new ‘green’ data centre, which will be powered by renewable energy sources.

The data centre, in Slough, Berkshire, will draw power from a local combined heat and power plant that uses wood chips, waste paper and fibre fuel to generate electricity, hot water and steam.

Rackspace has converted a former warehouse on the Slough Trading Estate, to provide 55,000 square feet of net technical space.

Construction has been completed and equipment is being installed in the first data hall. The first customers are scheduled to go live in June.

Rackspace has committed to being energy efficient, as they believe that customers are increasingly looking for suppliers who can help them meet their own environment related goals.

Power for the data centre comes from the UK’s largest dedicated bio-mass energy plant, which is operated by Scottish and Southern Energy.

Rackspace was one of the UK’s first hosting companies to offer carbon neutral hosting in 2006 by planting trees through its relationship with the International Tree Foundation, the world’s longest standing tree planting charity.

The company has already planted more than 2,500 trees to offset the carbon emitted through running servers.