Ghana gets first solar-powered Tier-4 data centre

Etix Everywhere, in partnership with Ngoya and the Africa Investment Group (AIG), has announced the start of constructing a Tier-4 data centre in the country.

The multi-tenant data centre (MTDC) will be carrier- and vendor-neutral, and will be powered by a solar plant – ensuring clean power independent of the grid.

Etix Accra #1 will be the first Tier-IV data centre in West Africa; and with its tier certification from the Uptime Institute, the data centre guarantees to customers an infrastructure, a capacity, and processes in place to provide a truly maximum level of availability.

“African data centres always face a power supply challenge,” states Dr. Samuel Ankrah, Chief Executive Officer of AIG. “We decided to entrust Etix Everywhere and their proven design and technical know-how to tackle this issue. The Tier-IV certification aims to ensure the quality of our infrastructure for our clients.

“Due to the unpredictable nature of African power utilities, and to secure an uninterruptible power supply for the data centre, Etix Everywhere proposed to build a solar plant next to the data centre,” says Ross Macdonald, CEO of Ngoya.

He added: “The infrastructure will be able to support the data centre at full capacity”. The solar plant will be built and operated by Etix Energy, a subsidiary of Etix Group.

Based on the modular design developed by Etix Everywhere, the first phase of the project will offer a capacity of 150 racks. Over half of the first phase is already booked.

Due to the increasing demand for carrier-neutral co-location services, the joint venture is planning to build a second site in Ghana to provide full redundancy.

“This data centre marks the next phase of Etix Everywhere’s expansion throughout Africa. We are building a global network of co-location data centres so that our customers get access to the best infrastructure wherever it is needed,” explains Antoine Boniface, Managing Director of Etix Everywhere.

“The boom in Internet access on the African continent will lead to an increasing demand for carrier-neutral data centres. This is the reason we are delivering a network of interconnected data centres, providing a pan-African platform for the delivery of digital services.”

Etix Accra #1 will be the second data centre of Etix Everywhere located on the African continent, after Etix Casablanca #1. Ghana is a vibrant West African economy that is well supplied with sub-marine cables, mobile network operators and ISPs, and strategically situated to provide a stepping-stone into the region.