New data centre planned for Bradford promises boost for AI development in West Yorkshire
A new planning application would see a new computing facility built on Listerhills Road
A DATA centre planned for the outskirts of Bradford city centre would “allow the region to benefit from new rapidly growing industries such as AI.”
A new planning application would see a new computing facility built on Listerhills Road, near the junction with Thornton Road and next to an under-construction energy centre.
Submitted by Deep Green Technologies Ltd, the application says the centre will “serve a range of businesses and universities” across the UK.
It will also help reduce energy bills of organisations signed up to the District Heat Network – it is claimed.
A data centre is a building that houses large amounts of computing equipment and servers, and can be used by multiple businesses that rely on data processing – such as the growing Artificial Intelligence industry.
The application says businesses and universities across the North of England could use the planned data centre.
The long empty site – on one of the main routes into the city centre – is currently undergoing a major redevelopment.
The energy centre that is being constructed on the site by 1energy will use air source heat pumps to provide low carbon heating to a number of buildings in the city centre, including Bradford City Hall and the city’s law courts.
A Starbucks is also being built on the Thornton Road side of the site.
The area that the data centre would be built on is currently used to store materials for the construction of the energy centre.
Four emergency generators are included in the plans to keep the facility running in the event of a power cut.
The application says any excess heat from the centre will be used to provide energy to the 1energy facility.
The application says: “The data centre will serve a range of businesses and universities in the North of England as well as across the UK.
“The data centre will be designed to accommodate HPC (High Performance Computing) so will be focused on providing services to businesses working with AI, data analysis, and computational modelling.
“The data centre will provide critical digital services to Bradford and the North of England which will enhance infrastructure and allow the region to benefit from new rapidly growing industries such as AI.
“The data centre will give all recaptured heat to the Bradford heat network free of charge. Modelling suggests that the data centre will generate 22.4GWh of free zero carbon heat which will save the heat network £960,000 and 814tCO2e per year.
“This directly reduces the heating bills for users of the heat network. It also assists in the potential for the expansion of the network to increase the offering of affordable low carbon heating to more Bradford residents and businesses.”
A decision on the application is expected in October.