A planning application has been submitted for a new datacentre outside Glasgow as the operator moves to assure the public over water and energy use.
DataVita, Scotland’s homegrown datacentre operator, has applied to North Lanarkshire Council to build DV4, a new datacentre at Chapelhall, Airdrie.
The two-year £849.6 million construction project forms part of the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, the first designated in Scotland by the UK Government.
It will support 2,650 job years and 120 permanent skilled roles on site, with apprenticeships, and at least 40% of capital contracts expected to be delivered by local suppliers.
Managing director Danny Quinn moved to assure the public over the facility’s green credentials, following recent concern over water and energy usage.
He said: “We have seen a lot of datacentre speculation in Scotland recently, and the vast majority of it will never be built. DataVita has been operating in Scotland for more than ten years, and we already underpin a lot of the critical services used day in, day out across Scotland. We built DV1 at Chapelhall, we are building DV3, and we run them ourselves with a Scottish team. DV4 is the next stage of that campus.
“Not all datacentres are the same, and we are keen to change the public perception. Scotland has an opportunity not only to become a datacentre location but an exporter of intelligence via low-carbon data centres. We don’t think of exporting barley when we talk about the success of our whisky industry, and data centres should be no different.”
He added: “The application is now with the council and open for comment, and I would encourage people to look at the detail.”
DV4 is designed to meet the four criteria the Scottish Government recommends for green data centres. It will run on 100% renewable electricity backed by certificated Scottish generation. Its efficiency target is a power usage effectiveness below 1.25, ahead of the recognised European benchmark for cool climates.
Cooling for the facility is ‘closed loop and sealed’, with no evaporative cooling, and a water usage target of 0.05 litres per kilowatt hour or lower. That is at most an egg cup of water for a washing machine cycle’s worth of electricity, around a thousand times less water than the wash itself uses.
In practice the sealed system tops up less water in a year than one Scottish resident uses at home. Heat recovery is built in from day one, and DataVita is in discussions with the new Monklands Replacement Hospital and the neighbouring BioCity campus on the reuse of surplus heat.
A feasibility study is underway for a community garden and greenhouse, warmed by surplus heat from the data centre, an idea raised by residents at the consultation events which would be funded through a community investment fund.
DataVita is also the largest supplier of cloud services to the Scottish public sector through the Scottish Government’s Cloud and Hosting Services framework, with services used every day across Scotland running on its infrastructure. The company is headquartered in Lanarkshire and employs its team in Scotland, as well as building and operating its own facilities.
The submission for planning permission in principle is supported by technical assessments, covering energy and decarbonisation, noise, air quality, transport, flood risk and drainage, ecology and landscape, heritage, ground conditions, economic impact and construction environmental management.
DataVita held four public consultation events, more than the two required, published all exhibition material online throughout, and issued a public FAQ, updated after each event. Feedback has shaped the design of the development. The maximum building height has been reduced from 30 metres to 26 metres, operational plant has been placed to the south of the building away from homes, and around 1,000 metres of new native hedgerow will be planted, at least double the length being removed.
