(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Canadian web hosting provider PEER 1 Network Enterprises (www.peer1.com) announced on Tuesday that it has begun construction on a 41,000 square foot "green" data center in the Toronto area.

The facility is located just 18 miles or 30 kilometers from the heart of Toronto.

PEER 1 recently expanded into Europe by opening its new European headquarters in Southampton, UK.

According to the press release, the new facility will use "some of the most efficient products and technologies on the market, including the use of a local well for primary water supply with redundant connection to the city water system to lower overall carbon footprint and provide reduce energy consumption."

The data center will undergo four phases, with the first stage set for completion in early 2010.

The $10 million build out will include 7,500 square feet of data center space, and 8,000 square feet of office and staging area.

The remaining 25,500 square feet will be devoted to additional data center space and infrastructure, which the company says will be "built out in three future phases based on customer demand and market conditions."

The data center will integrate many energy efficient features, including the use of redundant high efficiency VFD centrifugal chillers and heat exchangers to take advantage of "free cooling” during colder months.

In addition to offering significant energy savings, the feature lets the company use more environmentally friendly refrigerants not typically found in current air-cooled systems.

"Our philosophy is to develop the most efficient data center facilities possible, with increased power densities and high reliability that will help provide our customers with a base from which to grow their online businesses," says Fabio Banducci, president and CEO for PEER 1. "A state-of-the-art data center is a strategic foundation for great customer experiences, and we believe the new facility will have a very positive impact on future growth and returns."

The data center will offer scalable managed hosting, dedicated hosting through the ServerBeach brand and colocation services within the Toronto facility, making it the first time all three hosting services will be offered by the company from a Canadian-based facility.

The facility will have capacity for about 700 normal cabinet equivalents for colocation and 9,000 servers for managed and dedicated hosting, with the ability to mix these core services based on future customer demand.

PEER 1 also announced it has joined The Green Grid (www.thegreengrid.org), a global organization dedicated to improve energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems through the development of best practices, metrics and technologies.

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