A BID for a major new AI data centre in the Borders has progressed to the formal planning stage.
Sunlaws Development Company Limited has previously submitted a request to Scottish Borders Council for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) over its plans for the Southside Data Centre on land at Clawbare Cottage in Longformacus, outside of Duns.
The proposed development site is located 9.4km to the south east of the Fallago Rig wind farm, a 48-turbine wind farm on Lammermuir Hills in Berwickshire.
Now a Proposal of Application (Pan) has also been submitted to SBC, with the planning authority legally obliged to respond to it within 21 days, outlining whether the consultation planned is adequate.
A data centre is a dedicated facility housing IT infrastructure-servers, storage, and networking gear to store, process, and distribute vast amounts of data, forming the backbone for cloud computing, online services (streaming, banking, apps), and digital operations, ensuring critical data and applications are always accessible through robust power, cooling, and security systems.
Major new data centre bids and projects are rapidly expanding across the UK, driven by the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan and significant private investment from hyper-scalers like Amazon and Microsoft.
The closest town to the proposed development, Duns, is approximately 11km away.
The planned development on the Roxburghe Estate comprises of three large two-storey data centre buildings (up to a total ground footprint of 8.1ha), with associated infrastructure (grid connection, transformer, switchboard and Uninterruptible Power Supply system), staff/visitor parking, internal access roads and walkways, security fence and landscaping.
Each two-storey building will have a height up to 24m and an internal floor space of 54,000m2 over the two floors.
Within each building, half comprises IT floor space and half comprises electrical and mechanical infrastructure.
