INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Data Centres
Plans announced to build world’s
largest ocean-powered data
centre in Scotland
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IMEC Atlantis Energy Limited, a
global developer, owner and operator
of sustainable energy projects, has
announced ambitions for a tidal-powered
data centre in the Caithness region of
Scotland. The power supply for such a data
centre would include electricity supplied via
a private wire network from tidal turbines at
the existing MeyGen project site.
This would be the first ocean-powered data
centre in the world, with the potential to
attract a hyperscale data centre occupier to
Scotland. It is expected that the data centre
would be connected to multiple international
subsea fibre optic cables, offering a fast and
reliable connection to London, Europe and
the USA.
Further connectivity to the central belt
using domestic terrestrial networks could
significantly improve Scottish data and
connectivity resilience.
The MeyGen project has a seabed lease and
consents secured for a further 80MW of tidal
capacity, in addition to the 6MW operational
array which has now generated more than
20,000MWh of electricity for export to the
grid. The target operations date for the
data centre is expected to be 2024, in line
with the expansion plans for the tidal array,
however a smaller initial data centre module
could be deployed sooner to draw on the
output from the existing tidal array.
Atlantis has been working with AECOM, a
multinational engineering firm, to assess
the feasibility of connecting to high-speed
international fibre optic connections and
undertake the systems design for a data
centre with access to predictable renewable
generation with grid back-up, at a location
which benefits from low temperatures to
assist cooling of the data centre.
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INTELLIGENTCIO
The data centre could also alleviate
constraints on other local renewable energy
development which is restricted by the current
grid capacity and the closure of renewable
energy subsidy mechanisms. Projects
including MeyGen would be able to sell power
directly to the data centre via a new private
wire network and thus are expected to benefit
from a premium to the wholesale power
prices which are achieved when dispatching
output via the National Grid.
Tim Cornelius, CEO of SIMEC Atlantis,
said: “Data is being touted as the new
oil. It is arguably becoming the world’s
most valuable resource and the amount
of data requiring storage is increasing at a
staggering pace. However, data centres are
undeniably power hungry and the clients of
data centre operators are rightly demanding
power be sourced from renewable and
sustainable sources.
“This exciting project represents the
marriage of a world-leading renewable
energy project in MeyGen with a data centre
operator that seeks to provide its clients
with a large amount of computing power,
powered from a sustainable and reliable
source – the ocean.” n
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