Infrastructure readiness
Preparing a 100 MW AI-ready data centre and renewable energy programme in Kazakhstan
Owner-side technical leadership for a phased data centre campus and associated renewable energy programme in Arshaly, Akmola Region.
- AI infrastructure
- Data centres
- Renewable energy
- Pre-feasibility
- 100 MW
- Target IT capacity
- 10 years
- Current phased programme concept
- ~USD 1.5B
- Estimated programme scale
The challenge
The constraint behind the work.
A large AI-ready data centre is not only a building or a technology procurement. The investment case depends on land, grid capacity, generation, cooling, water, connectivity, security, permitting, logistics, commercial demand, and financing progressing as one coordinated programme.
The proposed development in Arshaly, Akmola Region combines a data centre campus with an associated solar and wind strategy. The current concept targets 100 MW of IT capacity through staged development over ten years, with separate sovereign and commercial computing zones.
Our role
Responsibility at the critical interfaces.
Consensus Labs Swiss is leading the pre-feasibility process together with its development partner. Our role is owner-side data centre technical leadership and AI-readiness advisory.
The scope connects reference architecture, performance requirements, technical procurement specifications, workload assumptions, and the interfaces between the campus, grid, renewable generation, connectivity, and sovereign security requirements.
The work
What the engagement covered.
- 01 Confirm site boundaries, land rights, development constraints, and the expansion pathway
- 02 Establish a phased grid connection roadmap and validate available capacity
- 03 Define renewable generation, storage, backup power, and resilience assumptions
- 04 Assess cooling, water availability, flood exposure, and environmental requirements
- 05 Map diverse fibre routes, logistics access, and critical infrastructure dependencies
- 06 Define the reference architecture and separation model for sovereign and commercial workloads
- 07 Prepare evidence requirements and technical specifications for later engineering and procurement
Outcome and status
Turning a large concept into a decision process
The programme remains in pre-feasibility. Current work is focused on replacing assumptions with evidence and defining the technical and commercial decisions required before major capital is committed.
The approximately USD 1.5 billion programme estimate, 100 MW target, phasing, efficiency assumptions, and renewable strategy remain subject to feasibility, approvals, site confirmation, financing, and definitive agreements.
This engagement demonstrates infrastructure readiness in practice: define what must be proven, assign responsibility for the evidence, and create explicit decision gates before construction and procurement begin.
Related capability
