Greenfield Group (Greenfield), a renewable energy investor and developer, and Finsbury Infrastructure, a privately held specialist developer and investor, are partnering to develop a 36 MW IT data center east of Milan, with € 360 million (US$ 418 million) expected to be invested in the project and the surrounding region over the next three years.
Greenfield has secured 80 MW of power capacity for the site, providing significantly more capacity than the planned data center requires since access to power has become a key constraint for new data center projects as demand for electricity from digital infrastructure continues to grow as stated in a LinkedIn post.
“Demand for digital infrastructure continues to accelerate as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital transformation reshape the global economy,” said Ciro Morlino, Chief Growth Officer, Greenfield. “Our partnership with Finsbury represents an important milestone for Greenfield as we continue to expand our digital infrastructure activities across Europe. By bringing together land, power, planning and connectivity, we are creating a flagship development capable of supporting the next generation of digital services.”
Peter Connolly ACA CTA, Finance Director, Finsbury Infrastructure, said, “We are delighted to invest in our first project in Milan with Greenfield, who have huge experience developing power infrastructure in Italy and across Europe. We look forward to developing the project with Greenfield and investing in further projects in Italy as it grows as a centre for the European digital economy.”
The project is part of Greenfield’s broader expansion into European digital infrastructure and Finsbury Infrastructure is providing development capital and technical expertise, while Greenfield is contributing its experience in infrastructure development and power projects across Italy and other European markets. The companies will work with local partners as development progresses.
The facility is expected to serve customers across artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and enterprise applications. The companies also expect the development to generate local investment and employment opportunities.