A large-scale data centre is being planned by Turkey's satellite operator Turksat. It will be constructed in the Gölbaşı district, 20 kilometres south of the capital Ankara, according to Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu.
The Gölbaşı Data Centre is expected to go live in the first half of 2027. It will cover 28,500 square metres.
The Minister suggested that, based on these plans, Turksat's current data centre capacity will be increased by three times in the first phase and by more than eight times in the second phase, though it’s not clear when the second phase, in particular, will be completed.
The design and project planning work for the data centre has apparently been finished; work on the construction, electrical, mechanical and telecommunication infrastructure aspects of the project is to begin this year.
According to local reports, the facility will have six system halls, two high-performance rooms of 20 cabins each, and 6,000 square metres of white space, along with an office area with a capacity of 200 people. It will also have an installed power capacity of 21 MVA, and will meet LEED-Gold certificate standards for energy efficiency and Uptime Institute TIER-III and TSE 50600 data centre standards. It is also intended to be an environmentally friendly facility with low carbon emissions and, as the LEED-Gold reference indicates, high energy efficiency.
As the Data Centre Dynamics website points out, Turksat, founded in 1990, is the sole communications satellite operator in Turkey and owned by the Turkish sovereign wealth fund. The company currently has six satellites in operation. It offers IT services – including data centre services – through its Turksat Bilişim unit.
