Data centres: project launched for a network of 13 facilities

It is the result of a collaboration between Core Stack, a Lazzari Group company specialising in digital infrastructure, and Green Arrow Capital, and will be presented today in Rome: it is the first Italian project for a network of 13 medium-sized, sustainable data centres spread across the country, with the aim, according to the proponents, ‘of strengthening the country’s digital capacity’. The project relies on an entirely Italian supply chain and is being carried out by the joint venture between the Lazzari Group and Green Arrow Capital, which envisages an investment pipeline of over 1 billion for the development of assets over the next four years.

The network of facilities will extend across the entire peninsula, prioritising industrial areas in need of regeneration and those with low population density, and following the launch in the north and north-east, particular attention will be paid to central and southern Italy, where Core Stack aims to bridge a long-standing infrastructure gap, reducing the distance between computing power and the local area – from citizens to businesses, including the public sector.

Anna Lazzari, president of Core Stack and CEO of the Lazzari Group – which has been active for over a decade in the renewable energy and sustainable energy infrastructure sectors – explains this clear commitment to Southern Italy to *Il Sole 24 Ore* as follows: ‘Today, investment in data centres is still heavily concentrated in northern Italia, and in particular in the Milan area. However, we believe that simply replicating this concentration would mean missing out on part of the opportunity,’ emphasises the top executive, not before pointing out ‘that the growth of artificial intelligence and the demand for computing capacity can also become a tool for regional rebalancing. Central and southern Italia have areas, renewable energy generation capacity and regions where new infrastructure investment can generate a particularly significant economic and employment impact.”

Returning to the project – which will be presented in detail today following the opening remarks by Raffaele Fitto, Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms at the European Commission, and Alessio Butti, Under-Secretary of State to the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for technological innovation and the digital transition, Alessio Butti – the plants at the most advanced stage are those to be built on brownfield sites near the provinces of Cremona and Verona. And, as highlighted by the project’s architects, the authorisation process is also at the same stage of progress: the process of obtaining approval for the first two plants is at an advanced stage, and planning permission is expected by the end of 2027, with the plants due to come on stream in the first quarter of the following year.

Each data centre – whose architectural concept was devised and designed by Mca-Mario Cucinella Architects, whilst the design is by Lombardini22 – will be powered by renewable energy generated directly on site. Plans are also under way to install energy storage systems aimed at further improving the data centres’ energy performance, thanks to a collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano. As Eugenio de Blasio, founder and executive chairman of Green Arrow Capital, also notes, this confirms the launch of ‘an innovative, resilient project of high industrial value, through which we will help to ensure the country’s data sovereignty, security and competitiveness’.