News & Insights
Building AI-Ready Data Centres: Mercury’s Approach to Cooling
Mercury is the European leader in data centre solutions. We are a strategic partner to the world’s leading corporations, delivering highly complex projects across Europe. For over two decades, Mercury has been the engine behind the data centre revolution, applying leading-edge technologies and exceptional expertise to some of the sector’s most dynamic construction and fit-out programmes.
Across the data centre industry, rising rack densities and higher-performance compute environments are driving significantly greater thermal loads, making sophisticated cooling infrastructure a critical part of hyperscale and colocation data centre design and delivery.
Mercury continues to work with leading blue-chip clients on hyperscale and colocation projects. Operating at the forefront of emerging technologies, our teams maintain specialist capabilities in liquid cooling and sustainable construction. We engage with clients on cooling strategy from the earliest design stages, ensuring data centre infrastructure is engineered to support performance, density and long-term resilience.
Mercury’s DCBS Head of Engineering and BIM, Brian Mulligan explained:
We are delivering liquid-to-liquid, hybrid and air-based cooling systems across hyperscale and live environments. The approach on each project is always driven by client and end-user requirements. As cooling solutions continue to evolve, so too does our ability to deliver for clients
Mercury’s Specialist Cooling Services
Mercury has delivered a wide range of cooling strategies across complex data centre programmes throughout Europe, supporting hyperscale, colocation and live facilities in multiple regions. These environments demand specialist cooling strategies that support higher densities, evolving technologies and long-term operational resilience.
Mercury currently provides a wide range of cooling solutions, including:
- Liquid-to-liquid systems
- Hybrid systems combining liquid-to-liquid and liquid-to-air cooling
- Liquid-to-air systems supported by CRAHs and fan wall units
- Conditioned air cooling delivered via AHUs
- Free cooling and cooling tower solutions where appropriate
From Finland to Frankfurt, Mercury is delivering specialist cooling services in some of Europe’s most advanced data centres. One leading example is Paris Digital Park, one of Europe’s most significant hyperscale data centre campuses, delivered by Mercury. Comprising four facilities and delivering 76.8MW of IT capacity, the campus was purpose-built to support hyperscale, cloud and AI workloads. Strategic investments were made in redundant systems, including generators, chillers, dry coolers, and water treatment across all phases of the facility. These measures ensured consistent uptime and compliance with Tier III+ standards, supporting mission-critical workloads.
Delivering next-generation Cooling in Live and Complex Environments
Cooling is a critical element of Mercury’s Data Centre Retrofit Offering, with requirements ranging from plant upgrades and replacements to the integration of new systems for future project phases.
The DCRF team works closely with the client’s existing operations team to ensure new cooling systems are seamlessly integrated with the current infrastructure, while maintaining performance and uptime
This includes the development and coordination of detailed MOPs and RAMS, alongside careful planning of installation and commissioning activities.
Mercury continues to establish engineering excellence and leadership in energy-efficient practices across all sectors, with a strong focus on cooling and wider building performance. Mercury’s OSM capability supports this approach via fast-track front end prefabrication, componentisation and OSCx. This involves the delivery of repeatable modules, such as HAC’s incorporating liquid to liquid solutions, enabling consistent quality and productivity while supporting more efficient, sustainable project delivery. As technologies and density requirements continue to evolve, this integrated approach positions Mercury to support next-generation cooling strategies across both new and live operational environments.
ABOUT MERCURY
Mercury is the European leader in construction solutions. We build and manage complex engineering & construction projects for the world’s leading corporations. Our solutions help deliver technologies and life changing advancements that connect people, communities, and businesses, giving them the power to achieve incredible things. Our people have the courage to be innovative. Their determination and sharp focus enable us to deliver with certainty, time and time again
