BEIJING, February 14 (TMTPOST) — Chinese telecom giant Huawei has signed a contract with a Dubai partner to build a solar-powered data center, which will be the biggest data center in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).  

The Huawei team dedicated to the data center project consists of Huawei employees from six countries. The team has already built a sever room that covers an area of over 2,000 square meters in the Middle East in five days.

The data center projtect’s phase 1 facility, being built by Huawei in collaboration with the Dubai Electricity & Water Authority, is scheduled to enter operation in May this year. The facility will start trial operation in March. It is reported that Dubai’s sheikh will visit the data center during the trial.

The data center is expected to cover an area of over 100,000 square meters and will run entirely on green energy. It will be the biggest low-carbon data center in MENA. The construction of the data center will be implemented by the Dubai Electricity & Water Authority’s subsidiary Moro Hub.

The data center will be located in the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in the southeast side of Dubai. The data center is expected to pass Uptime Tier III assessment.

“We work in line with the vision and directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to make Dubai a global hub for green economy and sustainable development," said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA

"Data is quickly becoming the new engine for economic expansion and diversification. As more data center facilities are established in the future, this project serves as an exemplar of combining digital and power electronic technologies to create greener, low-carbon ICT infrastructure powered through renewable energy," Huawei UAE's CEO Steven Yi said.

The data center will be the second solar-energy-powered data center built by Moro Hub.