DATAVITA has invited the Scottish Greens and Action to Protect Rural Scotland (ARPS) to visit its campus at Chapelhall.
The invitations – addressed to Ross Greer MSP, co-leader of the Scottish Greens and Dr Kat Jones, APRS director and extend to planning and technical advisers – would provide an opportunity to see DataVita’s existing operations, discuss the construction underway at Chapelhall, and ask the provider of data centre and connectivity services.
DataVita explained that the Scottish Greens are expected to use their opposition debate today (September 16) to renew calls for a moratorium on all large-scale data centre applications across Scotland.
DataVita, headquartered in Lanarkshire, has operated data centres in Scotland for more than ten years. The company built, owns, and runs its DV1 facility in Chapelhall, is constructing DV3 alongside it and operates a second facility in Glasgow.
Its facilities are widely recognised as being some of the most energy efficient and sustainable in the UK, making use of renewable energy and closed-loop cooling to limit their draw on resources, with plans for the new facilities to be positive contributors to Scotland’s grid.
The firm recently secured funding of around £300 million from a syndicate of lenders, including the UK Government’s National Wealth Fund, to expand DV1 and build its new DV3 facility, enabling the delivery of Scotland’s first AI data centres within a designated AI growth zone.
DataVita added that the expansion and development of DV1 and DV3 will create around 600 jobs during construction, as well as around 100 permanent high-skilled roles once completed.
The Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone features a Community Investment Fund that will provide up to £543 million in direct funding to North Lanarkshire over 15 years, DataVita said.
Danny Quinn, MD of DataVita, said, “Nearly all of us use data centres every single day whether we realise it or not – from being able to use online banking and working from home, to scientists delivering groundbreaking medical research. They are the critical infrastructure that makes many of the things we do in modern life possible, and that is only going to accelerate as technology becomes even more entwined with daily life.
“For more than a decade, we’ve been supporting Scotland’s public services, businesses and even households to take advantage of the many benefits from online services. And, although AI is very much a hot topic at the moment, there is no doubt it is here to stay and the question for Scotland is how can we best use it to support jobs, skills, the public services we all rely on and the way we live, more generally.
“DataVita fully supports an open public debate about the right kind of controls to have in place for AI and, where necessary, government action to protect our economy, society and environment. But the importance of the decisions we make about AI for Scotland’s future economy cannot be overstated. We need to move beyond a debate in which one side has to be entirely right and the other entirely wrong.
“Where opinions differ, open and honest dialogue is the best way forward. A visit gives us the opportunity to show how our facilities operate and have a detailed conversation about our plans. We can explain the choices behind their design, hear the questions people have and discuss them directly.
“Data centres differ in what they do and how they are designed and operated. We would welcome the chance to explain how those differences apply to our facilities and proposals and we are making these invitations public because the developments are of public interest.
“People should be able to see that we are willing to explain our work, listen to different views and have a constructive discussion. We hope the invitations will be accepted.”
