A solar farm has been proposed in Hursley, southern England, that would directly connect to an IBM data center and office.

Clean Energy Capital has created a consultation website for locals outlining the previously unreported project.

“We have submitted a planning application seeking permission for a solar development for a time-limited 40-year term on land at Home Farm, around 500 meters from the IBM Hursley site,” the proposal states.

“Once developed, the facility would generate almost five million kWh of energy annually, saving the equivalent of c. 46,000 tonnes of CO2 or planting c. 60,000 trees over the scheme’s lifetime. The greenhouse gas savings alone would equate to removing around 580 UK cars off the road.”

Alongside supporting the data center, it will also power the company’s R&D center, offices, a co-working space called IncuHive, and the Hursley Sport and Social Club.

Clean Energy Capital funds, develops, builds, owns, and operates private wire renewable energy assets, selling the power to end users such as data center operators. In this case, no battery storage is planned.

The solar farm is expected to last 40 years, and take 4-6 months to construct if approved.

IBM has operated out of Hursley since the 1950s, when it began using an 18th-century Queen Anne-style mansion known as the ‘Hursley House’ for its research efforts.

The company still uses the Grade II* listed building but has since acquired more land nearby to build out more offices, labs, and the data center.

IBM says that researchers at Hursley House were responsible for bringing speech and color to computers for the very first time.

Hursley workers also developed the Customer Information Control System (CICS), used in ATMs, which brought in more than a billion dollars in annual revenue at its peak.

The data center itself was originally launched in 1977, and now spans some 27,000 square feet (2,500 sqm). Alongside 4,500 ‘physical systems,’ the data center hosts 11 mainframes.

As well as the private wire renewable power, IBM is exploring using an underground reservoir to support cooling.

With the site dating back some 75 years, IBM Hursley also features a small museum with historical technological artifacts from across IBM’s UK operations.