A year ago a number of data centre expansions were mooted for Scotland. Now in the north, Alchemy Plus in Inverness has its data centre facility due for launch this year and plans to develop in both in Lerwick, Shetland and at an Aberdeen site.

Other northern developments include the 14000 sq ft IFB Centre  originally to open in the second quarter of 2010 seeing IFB capacity grow ten-fold, and Amor Group's  £750,000 investment in its Aberdeen facility.

Onyx which opened its new Edinburgh facility  a year ago, is on record that it hopes to carry expansion into the US. Now Lumison  has joined in with its proposals to build a new £3m data centre.

Although a location is not yet finalised, CEO (right) Dr Aydin Kurt-Elli is reported saying the search has been narrowed to a handful of possible sites. The Edinburgh company will invest around £8m fitting out the data centre over the first four years of its operation.

Kurt-Elli said the new facility, due to open next year, will increase Lumison's capacity by more than 100%, adding to existing centres in Livingston and London and the investment is predicted to push revenues up by 20% to a turnover of more than £10m by year end September 2011. Currently it is reported that revenue are up from £7.1m to £8m in its current trading year, and net profits predicted to rise by around 150% t to £1.2m.

In the south of Scotland in rural Dumfries and Galloway, planning consent has now been given for both the Internet Villages International proposals, most recently at Johnstonebank Farm near Ecclefechan as well as the Peelhouses near Lockerbie, where construction expects to start in September.

This May, Gillespie Investments are promoting a renewables powered data centre at the former Drumshangie opencast mine to allow the village of Plains and North Lanarkshire to become the centre of a major new information industry.

The application has been for permission in principle, detailed plans showing eight data storage buildings, a back-up generator, office, boundary fencing and landscaping.

The green-light for a strategically important project on Scottish soil will increase pressure on the SNP-led government to lobby Westminster for changes in Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), notes The Herald, which penalises large energy users like datacentres, regardless of the source of their energy or their overall impact on carbon emissions.

Legislation promoted by the previous government is seen as threatening to “strangle an industry at birth,” an expert saying: “The government itself barely understands the implications of CRC, let alone the international players who have the rest of the world to chose from. If it survives people will only store data here if they have to be in the UK, whereas the name of the game is attracting global investment to Scotland.”

Time for Scotland to invest in a technology czar such as (left) Andrew Rigby or (right) Raymond O'Hare?