Africa Data Centres completes R5.5-billion expansion at Cape Town facility

Africa Data Centres’ 6MW capacity expansion at its Cape Town 1 (CPT1) facility has gone live, adding 1,000 racks of white space that is available for customers to lease.

The expansion included adding three state-of-the-art halls and another 6MW of critical IT load, effectively doubling the facility’s capacity.

“The new expansion was implemented with support from the United States through an up to $300 million (R5.5 billion) loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to Africa Data Centres,” it said.

Hardy Pemhiwa, president and group CEO of Africa Data Centre’s parent company, Cassava Technologies, said the expansion came in response to increased demand for colocation 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,” he added.

Africa Data Centres said it is seeing significant growth in South Africa’s data centre market as national and international cloud and IT service providers move to expand their footprints in the region.

The expansion includes two more colocation halls and one hyperscale hall, which Africa Data Centres says were built using a cutting-edge modular design. This allows for rapid scalability.

Pemhiwa thanked the Department of Communications, the Western Cape Provincial Government, and the Western Cape Department of Economic Development.

“I would like to acknowledge their ongoing support, as we expand our data centre facilities in South Africa,” he said.

The new halls are highly secure and focus on elements such as scalability, flexibility, and energy efficiency.

The data centre uses hybrid cooling technology that uses both air and liquid cooling. Africa Data Centres says it is powered by renewable energy.

“The Africa Data Centres’ CPT1 facility is at the forefront of pioneering the use of wheeled solar power in the market,” it said.

“This innovation is enabled through a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement signed in March last year with Distributed Power Africa, part of the Cassava Technologies group.”