Scala expects Chile datacenter projects to go live in 1Q24

After obtaining the relevant environmental permits, DigitalBridge’s Scala Data Centers expects its datacenter campuses in Chile to go live in the first quarter of 2024, the company said in a statement.

The entire project comprises three clusters, or datacenter campuses, being developed in three different locations in Central Chile: Curauma near Valparaíso, Lampa in the metropolitan region of Santiago and Huechuraba, also in the capital, company CEO Marcos Peigo told BNamericas.

The three campuses will have a combined capacity of 200MW and will require investments of around US$400mn in their first phases.

"In terms of total power capacity, Lampa will have 80MW, being 60MW licensed now. For this site a single tenant building will be anchored by a hyperscale customer," Peigo said.

Scala began construction of its Curauma datacenter campus last month, which will have capacity of 45MW. The first building is due to be completed in March 2023 and is already anchored in a long-term contract with a hyperscale customer.

The company has also started the executive project for its Lampa datacenter.

The first buildings in Lampa and Huechuraba will rely on FastDeploy building, a proprietary design and construction methodology created by Scala that allows the scalable deployment of datacenters 50% faster than with the traditional model, according to the company.

All of the datacenters will use 100% renewable and certified energy, in line with the company's portfolio, and are expected to generate around 1,000 direct and indirect jobs in Chile, Scala said.

The Scala projects will be led by the company's Center of Engineering Excellence (CoE).

With more than 150 engineers, the CoE is responsible for all activities related to the construction of a datacenter, from site selection to planning, design, construction and commissioning. 

The company claims that this accelerates delivery to customers and brings gains in scale and control, and allows greater visibility of projects.

The operating workforce recruited locally will undergo complementary technical training at the company's training center in São Paulo, according to Scala.

HUMBOLDT

The choice of Curauma as a site is deemed of strategic importance by Scala, because the Valparaíso region will be the landing point for the future Humboldt cable, a 14,810km submarine cable being championed by Chile to connect Latin America to the Asia-Pacific region for the first time.

In July, Chile’s state-run infrastructure fund Desarrollo País and its partner in the Humboldt project, H2 Cable, launched a request for proposition (RFP) process for companies interested in the construction of the system.

“The construction of a datacenter close to the submarine cable arrival site will guarantee unprecedented scale and quality of connectivity between Latin America, Asia and Oceania, contributing enormously to enabling the region's digital infrastructure,” Peigo said in the statement.

“And in a scenario where 5G accelerates the deployment of various services and applications that use high volume of data and require low latency, such as metaverse, Internet of Things (IoT), telemedicine, autonomous cars, among others, it is something even more remarkable,” he added.

Illustration: Scala's Lampa site. Source: Scala