Lockerbie Data Centre - Peelhouses data centre & sustainable village

DATA STORAGE FACILITY AND SUSTAINABLE EXTENSION TO TOWN AT PEELHOUSES FARM, LOCKERBIE.  

Synopsis: Lockerbie Data Centres Limited propose to develop a sustainable village with a range of land uses on the edge of Lockerbie in Dumfries & Galloway.  The development will enshrine principles of sustainability and address Economic, Social and Environmental aspects of the locality, the region, and Scotland as a whole.  The principal element of the development is a two hundred and fifty thousand square metre data storage facility.  This facility will address a world-wide shortage of data storage capacity, and offset the vast energy inputs required by balancing this with local renewable energy sources and the re-use of energy in a new village that will initially provide up to seven hundred and fifty new homes of mixed tenure.  Commercial and business space suitable for companies and individuals working in the Web-Commerce and I.T. industries will also be incorporated into the layout of the village.  The sustainable credentials of the development are based on a grouping of interdependent and interacting circumstances that this locality can provide and which will benefit the existing community and commerce.

The town of Lockerbie is situated in southern Scotland and benefits form excellent road and rail links north and south. More importantly in terms of the data storage facility, Lockerbie also ‘enjoys’ a cool climate and immediate proximity to the spine optical data cables running the length of the UK, and has both power and available land in abundance. In short, where London is lacking, Lockerbie has every possible attribute for efficient, economical, and ecologically sensitive development in this field.

The environmental sustainability of the project draws together a number of locally available factors. The data storage facility requires a great deal of electrical power, mostly for cooling. The cool climate reduces the load required, but that which is required will be provided partially by a new wind farm and an existing bio-mass generation plant just to the north of the site, with backup from the national grid. Unlike most of the existing data centres in existence, the heat produced by the plant will not be lost as exhaust to the atmosphere, but will form the basis of a community heat and power distribution to the benefit of the new housing and commercial space on site, the new sports centre and swimming pool and the new school in Lockerbie, and possibly also to existing residential properties in the town.

The housing will answer a local need, DGHP the local RSL currently has a waiting list in excess of one thousand households, provide a living and working environment where plentiful natural countryside and sympathetic master-planning together with integrated high speed I.T. communications, village amenities and employment opportunities are all immediately to hand, and be designed in association with The Carbon Trust, The Energy Saving Trust, and the Building Research Establishment to provide homes designed, detailed and constructed to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4, ensuring very high performance levels. Working from home, or working within walking distance will be designed into the masterplan, as will being able to shop and enjoy social activities, and Lockerbie commerce will also benefit.