Africa Data Centres, a business of Cassava Technologies, has announced that it is expanding its CPT1 facility in Cape Town. The data center company is adding three new halls in new areas on the campus, increasing its IT load by another 6 MW and adding 1,000 new racks, effectively doubling its current capacity. The expansion was made possible with support from the US through a loan of up to USD 300 million from the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to Africa Data Centres, the company said on Thursday.
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Sustainability Innovations
"This expansion by Africa Data Centres is in response to the increasing demand for co-location capacity in South Africa. Not only is Cape Town the second-largest economy in South Africa, but it is also the de facto software and technology hub in Southern Africa," Cassava said.
The upgraded facility will feature a modular design for rapid scalability, hybrid cooling technology for efficiency, and sustainability innovations, including renewable energy power and wheeled solar power, marking Africa's first implementation of this technology.
The company said that the wheeled solar power at the CPT1 facility is enabled through a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) signed in March last year with Distributed Power Africa, part of the Cassava Technologies group.
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Connectivity Enhancements
"The introduction of wheeled solar power at the CPT1 facility offers significant benefits to our customers, providing a truly sustainable data center solution. As the demand for data continues to skyrocket across Africa- a continent where power supply is often intermittent - the need for reliable, cost-effective, and green power has never been more critical," said Africa Data Centres.
The Cape Town data center also benefits from its proximity to submarine cable landing stations and the Cape Town Internet Exchange (CINX), enhancing data connectivity and reducing latency, the company added.
