A 213MW data center could be built at the former headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland, outside Edinburgh.

Members of Edinburgh City Council’s development management sub-committee will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to approve construction of the data center, with planning officers having recommended that the scheme get the green light.

The scheme was first proposed last August, and is being pursued by Shelborn Asset Management, which owns the site at 1 Redheughs Avenue in the Edinburgh Park business park.

Described as a “green data center” in planning documents, the data center campus would have a capacity of up to 213MW, spread across two buildings. It will be powered by renewable energy, the developer said.

The development would also include a new public park.

It would be located on the site of the former Royal Bank of Scotland HQ at Drummond House. The previous facility was built in 1993, sold to Shelborn Asset Management in 2021, and demolished in 2022 following the relocation of Natwest staff to Gogarburn. The two buildings spanned 330,000 sq ft (30,660 sqm) on around 18.5 acres. The neighboring Younger Building has been renovated.

Shelborn Asset Management had initially planned an office and residential development on the site, but has now pivoted to the data center plan.

The council has decided not to request an environmental impact assessment (EIA) be carried out for the project, much to the chagrin of environmental campaigners. The group Action to Protect Rural Scotland reportedly described the decision not to mandate an EIA as “gobsmacking.”

However, the council’s decision notice about the EIA said: “The site is brownfield land, and in an urban environment which is not defined as a sensitive area.

“The site’s location in Scotland supports use of renewable energy which will help reduce the development’s carbon footprint.

“The development will likely have a negligible impact on achieving national greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.”

Scotland has a small data center market, with the majority of facilities based in Edinburgh. According to Data Center Map, Edinburgh has nine data center locations.

However, efforts are being made to change this, and last week it was announced an AI Growth Zone will be set up in North Lanarkshire, near Glasgow, which could enable 500MW of data center space to be built.