Approval expected for data storage centre plan

Published on Friday 20 November 2009 21:20

AN AMBITIOUS plan to build the world's biggest data storage centre and clean-energy village near Lockerbie is expected to be approved next week, paving the way for work to start next year.

The developer behind the 1 billion-plus project, Lockerbie Data Centres, is in talks with potential investors and says a number of blue chip companies, including credit card and IT businesses, are keen to sign up for the development which will be built in phases over ten years.

Planning officials have recommended that Dumfries and Galloway Council approve the project which could attract more than 3bn of investment and create 3,000 jobs during development.

Data centres, housing computer servers and storage facilities, are becoming big business as the explosion in digital information, from online banking to television programmes, outstrips capacity. Global demand for data centres is increasing by 15 per cent a year while capacity is rising by just 5 per cent and by next year 88 per cent of all data centres will be operating at full capacity.

Estimates suggest data centres already use almost 3 per cent of the UK's electricity.

The Lockerbie initiative is eagerly awaited by numerous parties and is said to have support in government circles.

Lockerbie Data Centres is a subsidiary of Robison and Davidson (Holdings), a long-established firm in the area. David King, project director, said: "As we stand this is just a hill farm. On Wednesday it changes to a real development.

"This is a major enterprise programme that will be of considerable benefit, not only to Dumfries and Galloway, but to the whole of Scotland, creating thousands of jobs. Feedback from the local community has been extremely positive."

Another project, Internet Villages International, has joined up with Atlantis Resources, an engineer of ocean turbines, to develop technology that could power local data centres with energy from the sea off Caithness.