Data centre operators should make more use of geospatial data to determine the feasibility of development sites, an expert has said.

Chris Wilton, sector lead, utilities, at Ordnance Survey, said geospatial data science provided a “helicopter view” of the suitability of a location for data centre development, including factors such as electricity grid and water infrastructure, geography and topography.

“We can look at factors such as the challenges in terms of connection to the grid and other utilities, what the benefits might be for a centre running on renewable energy, and help ensure it is optimised for maximum economic and societal impact.”

Ordnance Survey combines geospatial data with information from other sources, such as the British Geological Survey, to build up an accurate and highly detailed picture of areas of land. “That aggregation of data gives us real insight,” Wilton says.

He added that Teesside, UK, had a lot of potential as a site for new data centres but there were plenty of trade-offs that needed to be assessed before they could be developed. “On Teesside, there is great potential for siting data centres. There are historic brownfield sites that could be redeveloped. But there are potentially a lot of [land] contamination issues and there is a conflicting aspect: that Teesside is an area of natural beauty, and stakeholders are looking to do a lot of regeneration projects in terms of natural habitat.”

Geospatial data could help data centre developers balance these concerns to assess the suitability of a new site. “When we talk about building data centres in isolation, it sounds simple, but when you start thinking about the real location and the geospatial side of things, it becomes far more complicated.”

Noting that the UK National Energy System Operator (NESO) was looking for ways to speed up the connection of assets such as data centres to the electricity grid, he said geospatial understanding of local areas had the potential to help.

“Before you start digging any holes, you have all these conflicting agendas. We can help you assess what is a sensible development to proceed with because it ticks all the boxes, balancing ecology, infrastructure and capacity.

“Geospatial data helps inform decision-making for all stakeholders – to know which projects we should push ahead with, versus those we need to press pause on and think about.”

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