Legrand cooling selected for ‘Europe’s largest AI campus’

Author: Joe Peck

Legrand, a French multinational infrastructure products manufacturer, has been selected by Start Campus, a designer, builder, and operator of sustainable data centres, to supply cooling technology for a large-scale data centre development in Sines, Portugal.

The project forms part of a planned 1.2GW campus designed to support AI, cloud computing, and high-performance workloads. Legrand will deploy its rear-door heat exchanger technology, developed by its USystems brand, to provide rack-level cooling across the site.

The Sines campus is powered by renewable energy and is targeting a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.1 and a water usage effectiveness (WUE) of 0, using seawater cooling to support high-density environments.

Robert Dunn, CEO of Start Campus, says, “These are very technically challenging projects, so we need to work with the best in the business to meet those complex challenges.”

Cooling technology for high-density workloads

The cooling system operates at rack level, removing heat directly at source by cooling exhaust air before it enters the wider data hall. This approach reduces reliance on traditional air-cooling methods and supports higher rack densities.

Legrand states that the system can reduce cooling-related power consumption compared with conventional approaches, whilst also maintaining stable thermal conditions.

The technology additionally adjusts cooling capacity in real time to match operational requirements, supporting efficiency and performance across the facility.

Rita Lourenço, Key Account Manager – Critical Power at Legrand, notes, “The full lifecycle partnership […] includes knowledge sharing, maintenance support, proactive problem detection, and long-term collaboration beyond commissioning.”

The two companies state their partnership includes ongoing support and maintenance, alongside the initial deployment of the cooling systems.

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