Start Campus to kick off construction of mega data centre in Sines

Start Campus, the company responsible for developing the SINES 4.0 hyperscaler data centre, began constructing the first of nine buildings on the future campus located in Sines on Tuesday. Building NEST – New & Emerging Sustainable Technologies will involve a €130 million investment and is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2023. It will create 70 to 100 new direct jobs in the region, and it is also estimated that 400 indirect jobs will be generated later this year.

“SINES 4.0 is now being implemented on the ground and this is an important milestone for this project. This investment responds to two trends that have been confirmed in recent years: digital transformation and sustainability. We want to make a difference with what we are creating, generating skilled jobs and attracting more investment with a positive impact for the community in Sines,” says Afonso Salema, CEO of Start Campus, quoted in a statement.

“There is a tremendous demand at international level for data centres by hyperscalers. The international market is developing rapidly and the pandemic moment has accelerated and even confirmed trends such as telecommuting, consumption of streaming services, cloud computing, social media, among others,” he added.

NEST, the first building of the mega data centre, will have 5,000 square metres, capacity for 15 MW and will be a smaller model of the other buildings. “The building will have availability for one to six clients (six 2.5 MW rooms) and will feature green energy and sustainable cooling, besides support services,” describes Start Campus.

This first phase of the project represents a €130 million investment – 20 million have already been invested in the project since last year – the first tranche of an estimated global investment of €3.5 billion by 2027.

In this initial phase, 70 to 100 new direct jobs will be created in Sines, with a powerful component of highly qualified positions such as telecommunications engineers, mechanics and electricians. This year, it is estimated that 400 indirect jobs will be created, according to the promoter.

NEST is part of the SINES 4.0 project, one of the largest European data centres. Comprising 9 buildings (NEST with 15MW and 8 more buildings with 60 MW capacity each), the data centre will be 100% green and when it is completed, in 2027, it will have a total capacity of 495 MW.

Located in the Sines Industrial and Logistics Zone (ZILS), SINES 4.0 leverages the strategic geographic position of Sines, with the help of new undersea cables: EllaLink (connecting Portugal to Madeira and South America, Equiano and 2Africa (connecting the entire African continent to Europe via Portugal) and Medusa (connecting the Mediterranean).