Planning permission to build a £800m ($997m) data center complex at Peelhouses Farm in the South West of Scotland may receive its third three-year extension, as developers have yet to commence construction.

To be or Lockerbie 

Lockerbie Data Centers 2008 concept plan
Lockerbie Data Centers 2008 concept plan – DCD

Dumfries and Galloway Council have recommended an extension be placed on the project, which would include 272,000 sq m (2.9m sq ft) of data center space, a technology park, a horticultural research unit and commercial greenhouses.

The data center itself would comprise 40 separate 6,800 sq m (73,000 sq ft) units that would be built incrementally, eventually accommodating for 50,000 racks with a peak power demand of 300MW.

The inaugural plans for the facility placed strong emphasis on its reliance on sustainable energy sources, which would include nearby E-On biomass plant and wind farm; the data centers would also recycle heat via a power distribution system to be used in surrounding commercial buildings and potentially extend to wider use by local residents.

Lockerbie Data Centres laid out its Peelhouses Farm plans in 2008, intending for construction to begin in 2009 and end in 2011. When the concept was first announced, it promised a £960m ($1.1bn) development which would attract over £3.5bn ($4.4bn) in inward investments and create hundreds of jobs. At the time, 750 residential units were also to be part of what was pledged to be an “international hub for the Internet age.”

Much ado about very little 

With the help of management consultancy firm WYG, the project received planning permission in 2010, by which point the idea of building 750 homes in the complex had been dropped.

That year, Lockerbie Data Centres sought out the Carbon Trust’s counsel to establish green energy solutions for the facility. Lockerbie Data Centres project director David King stated that until then, the design consultants the company had been working with had been “generalist, not specific to the data center industry.”

“We spent a lot of time looking at how cooling is deployed in other industries in, for example the car industry,” he said, although the Carbon Trust had only launched its data center design service on the week it partnered with Lockerbie Data Centres.

In 2011, the company that held the designs for the complex, R&D Construction, went into administration after operating at a loss of £109,000 ($136,000) the previous year and having accumulated over £30m ($37m) of debt. This cast a new web of doubt on the viability of the project.

A new application was submitted in 2013 by WYG consultancy firm on behalf of planning firm Blackmores, and then again this year. No objections were lodged.

DCD will keep its readers updated as further information emerges.