Duke of Roxburghe greets visitors at public consultation on data centre in Lammermuir Hills
Developers behind plans to build large warehouses full of powerful computers used to run digital services in the Lammermuir Hills say they've been encouraged by the response from the public - despite more than 6,000 people signing an online petition objecting to the development.
Jaap Röell, Managing Director of Roxburghe Estates, told us turnout at consultation events in Longformacus and Westruther over the past week has been "really good".
And, all being well, they hope to submit a planning application to Scottish Borders Council before the end of the year.
The proposed Southside Data Centre - comprising three two-storey buildings on Roxburghe Estate land at Clawbare Cottage near Longformacus - has been billed as a £2 billion investment in the Scottish economy.
And, according to Sunlaws Development Company, it would create 145 long-term jobs and contribute around £12 million a year to the local economy.
Mr Röell, who was joined by the Duke of Roxburghe at the event in Westruther Village Hall yesterday (Wednesday), told Greatest Hits Radio: "We've had a really good attendance, which we're really pleased with.
"Of course, there are people that are just principally against it.
"There are people raising questions about the use of AI in the world. We're not trying to have that debate. That's not what this is about.
"This is a consultation process that leads to a planning application, and what has been really useful is that we've had some really great suggestions from people that visited about little tweaks that can be made to the site design."
And he added: "It's all subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), so it's a very rigorous process."
According to the developers, the three buildings would be screened into the landscape, with environmentally-sensitive “green roofs”, planted with moorland species and designed to blend into the surrounding natural moorland landscape.
But the prospect of such a huge development on their doorstep has alarmed the communities of Longformacus, Allenford and the Cranshaws.
"There is a suggestion being made that they use masses of water. That is incorrect," Mr Röell said. "Our design is based on a closed loop system, which is similar to a refrigerator. You fill it once with water, and then you pump it around.
"There are other myths about noise. Most of the data centres operating today have diesel backup generators, and they are known to be very noisy and polluting."
But he added: "We, from the outset, sought to create something that did not rely on that, so therefore our scheme doesn't propose to have any form of diesel backup generation."
SDC - formed by Roxburghe Estates and the local landowner - said the project could create 1,000 jobs in the construction phase.
It said it would mainly be powered by wind farms due to the proximity of a large number of them.
"Some wind farms in the area are also sometimes curtailed, which basically means that the network can't take the power and they therefore pay the wind farms to not produce," Mr Röell said. "That to us felt like a waste.
"We are generating a lot of electricity. Is there a way of actually creating jobs and revenues, tax revenues for Scottish Borders Council, as well as an income stream for the estate for future generations? That led us to the exploration of a data centre."
The proposals have prompted opposition from campaigners concerned about the impact on the Lammermuir landscape and wildlife. However, one campaigner, Ben Charlesworth, acknowledged that changes to the designs had helped ease some of his initial fears over the appearance of the development.
"In some aspects it absolutely helped some of the initial fears, mainly around the aesthetics of the site," he said.
“Initially we had seen the original concepts of quite clinical white buildings but there are proposals to increase the size of the burns, add this green roof and this green paint to try and match into the area, so that helped mitigate that worry.
“The ones we didn’t get answers for and continue to remain a worry with the local communities is around the environmental impact, we weren’t able to get any solid information.
“There is also the question of the local benefits and the numbers didn’t really hold up under scrutiny at this stage."
A planning application is expected to be lodged later this year, with construction potentially beginning by the end of 2028 or early 2029 - if the development is approved.
What is a data centre?
Mr Röell said: "A data centre is effectively a big warehouse full of computers that stores and processes data, which we use every day in our life.
"If you pay for the bus with your phone that uses data, and there are so many other examples."
Why here and why now?
Mr Röell explained: "The 'why here and why now' is actually relatively straightforward. We in the Scottish Borders, and specifically in the Lammermuirs, there's quite a lot of renewable energy generated through a multitude of wind farms.
"On our land, we already have a substation at Fallago Rig. And, last year, we were granted permission also to build a battery storage facility there to store energy. And one of the things in our overall approach has been to look at what happens to all that energy.
"Some wind farms in the area are sometimes curtailed, which basically means that the network can't take the power and they therefore pay the wind farms to not produce.
"That to us felt like a waste. And we started thinking: 'Is there a way of actually creating jobs and revenues, tax revenues for Scottish Borders Council, as well as an income stream for the estate for future generations?' And so we that led us to the exploration of a data centre.
"We've been working on this plan for quite some time and have done a lot of research. And through that process, we discovered that actually by creating, effectively, a network on our own land, using power from at least two wind farms, that the site of the data centre can be powered entirely with green energy, renewable energy.
"It was the right place because it can connect to multiple power sources, and it can help reduce the amount of curtailment payments that are being made, which ultimately are paid out of our tax monies.
"And, therefore, we believe that it is a better use of that energy, and it can add value through the data centre and the jobs that it creates."
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