US banking giant Citi is spending €170m (£115.6m) on a new green data centre in Frankfurt, Germany.

The installation is due to be completed in March 2008, and will provide IT services for Citi's operations in Europe.

'We were able to create a green facility within the same capital cost as that of a conventional data centre. In addition the lower operating cost over the life cycle of the building is significant,' said Sue Harnett, head of German operations for Citi.

The new centre will save 25 per cent on electricity consumption compared with existing data facilities, cutting 16,000 megawatt hours a year. And up to 11,000 fewer tons of carbon dioxide will escape into the atmosphere than from a convential data centre of the same size, said Citi.

The site will also have a sophisticated water management system that the bank estimates will save 46.5 million litres of water a year.

The data centre is part of the bank's $50 billion climate change programme, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10 per cent at 14,500 facilities worldwide by 2011.