SIMEC Atlantis Energy\nLimited (\u2018Atlantis\u2019), a global developer, owner and operator of\nsustainable energy projects, has announced ambitions for a tidal-powered data\ncentre in the Caithness region of Scotland. The power supply for such a data\ncentre would include electricity supplied via a private wire network from tidal\nturbines at the existing MeyGen project site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This would be the first\nocean powered data centre in the world, with the potential to attract a\nhyperscale data centre occupier to Scotland. It is expected that the data\ncentre would be connected to multiple international subsea fibre optic cables,\noffering a fast and reliable connection to London, Europe and the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further connectivity to\nthe central belt using domestic terrestrial networks could significantly\nimprove Scottish data and connectivity resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The MeyGen project has a\nseabed lease and consents secured for a further 80MW of tidal capacity, in\naddition to the 6MW operational array which has now generated more than\n20,000MWh of electricity for export to the grid. The target operations date for\nthe data centre is expected to be 2024, in line with the expansion plans for\nthe tidal array, however a smaller initial data centre module could be deployed\nsooner to draw on the output from the existing tidal array.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The data centre could also\nalleviate constraints on other local renewable energy development, which is\nrestricted by the current grid capacity and the closure of renewable energy\nsubsidy mechanisms. Projects including MeyGen would be able to sell power\ndirectly to the data centre via a new private wire network and thus are\nexpected to benefit from a premium to the wholesale power prices which are\nachieved when dispatching output via the National Grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The private wire\nconnection is intended to provide an alternative pathway to construction of the\nnext large phase of the MeyGen project without reliance on the UK government\u2019s\ncurrent limited support schemes for renewable energy. Atlantis is in\ndiscussions with world leading data centre operators to progress plans for the\ndata centre and facilitate the expansion of MeyGen using the Scottish supply\nchain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is expected that the\nturbines to power this giant data centre will be manufactured in Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tim Cornelius, CEO of SIMEC Atlantis, said: \u201cData is being touted as the new oil. It is arguably becoming the world\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis exciting project\nrepresents the marriage of a world leading renewable energy project in MeyGen\nwith a data centre operator that seeks to provide its clients with a large\namount of computing power, powered from a sustainable and reliable source \u2013 the\nocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt MeyGen we have many of\nthe ingredients to provide clean power to the data centre, including a large\ngrid connection agreement, proximity to international fibre optic connections\nand persistent cool weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe also believe that Scotland can play a key role in the global data\ncentre industry thanks to its ready access to clean energy and we are eager to\nplay our part at Atlantis to turn this potential into reality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SIMEC Atlantis Energy Limited (\u2018Atlantis\u2019), 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":33868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,36,93],"tags":[13430,112,13431,5276],"class_list":["post-33837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-centres","category-green","category-top-stories","tag-atlantis","tag-data-centre","tag-ocean","tag-scotland"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33838,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33837\/revisions\/33838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}