(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Touted as Scotland’s first eco-friendly data center, IT services company Alchemy Plus (alchemyplus.com) announced on Monday it will be building a data center facility as part of a major development at Inverness Harbour.
According to the company’s most recent announcement, the new 20,000 square foot facility will be “Scotland’s most advanced shared services computing center in the Highland capital,” and offer data center services in a “pay as you go” basis.
The planned facility is intended to be the greenest of its kind in the country, says Alchemy Plus, due to its holistic approach to energy conservation, building on the advantages of the colder northern Scotland climate and the Highlands’ abundance of renewable energy from established hydro-electric and wind power schemes.
A rather unique aspect of its approach is Alchemy Plus’ plan to transmit the extra heat produced by the data center to warm neighboring parts of the Inverness Harbour development including retail units, offices and a major hotel.
“We are delighted that our vision for such an innovative facility here in the Highlands has now reached another major milestone and is moving forward at a pace,” says Steve Chisholm, CEO of Alchemy Plus. “Much thought has gone into developing an environmentally friendly solution that reduces energy consumption and waste while satisfying a rapidly growing demand for cheaper and more flexible IT services that enhance business value.”
The new data center development represents an estimated $30 million investment and will eventually create employment for over 400 people. The company says it hopes to have the facility up and running by 2010.
Alchemy Plus says the move heralds a potential new industry for the Highlands, which it certainly does. However, it’s not the first instance of such a project being launched in Scotland, as the press release states.
In October, US investment bank Morgan Stanley reported it was planning a $370 million to $443 million off-grid data center in northern Scotland, directly powered by tidal energy from Atlantis Resource Corporation turbines harnessing the power of waves, with the hopes of attracting large customers such as Google, which have quickly growing capacity needs.
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