The new MITA Data Centre in Santa Venera – which is nearing completion – will house over 100 photovoltaic panels, which are expected to generate a significant amount of the premises energy needs.

The investment in photovoltaic panels is in line with MITA’s commitment to energy efficiency and use of renewable energies, the company said. The photovoltaic installations are rated at 21kw, with 102 Kyocera panels and 7kw Sunnyboy invertors.

The yearly energy yield from this system is estimated to stand at 38,000KWh, which will result in substantial electricity savings. The estimated payback time for this investment is approximately nine years, while savings of CO2 emissions has been estimated to be 33 tons per annum.

The new state-of-the-art €7.3m government data centre is expected to be inaugurated by the end of this year. The centre should meet the government’s data storage and processing needs for the next 10 years and has been planned for upgrades as they became available.

The new data centre will take over from the data centres at Gattard House and Mater Dei Hospital. The former will be gradually wound down while the hospital data centre will be retained.

Work on the new data centre, near Psaila Street, started in October last year. Both the building and the equipment, including security precautions, meet the latest international standards.

Presently, the two other Data Centres house over 700 servers and have already reached 84 per cent of their full capacity. The new centre will ensure the continuation of the highest level ICT services for essential government services.