Contractors moved onto site this week to begin demolishing parts of the former Tullis Russell paper mill in Glenrothes in preparation for the construction of a state-of-the-art Queensway Park development with an estimated contract value approaching £150 million over three phases.

Over 300 construction jobs will be secured during the build process and up to 50 full time posts created on completion, including technical and operational staff.

Queensway Park will be the first facility of its kind in the UK to draw 100 per cent of its energy from renewable sources, with an IT load capacity of up to 20 mega-watts and ultra-high speed broadband. The campus will connect to the UK’s largest biomass plant and feature high speed carrier neutral data connections stretching to over 7,500 kilometres across the UK with global connection points.

The Queensway Park campus is a joint venture between Edinburgh based developers County Properties Group and AOC Group, who are in advanced discussions with Etix Everywhere, an international developer and operator of collocation data centres to run the facilities and provide technical support.

Lesley Laird, Fife Council’s deputy leader and executive spokesperson for economy and planning, said: “We are delighted that Fife is set to be the home of Scotland’s largest and most energy efficient data centre campus. Fife is at the forefront of renewable energy and innovation, and this most recent development reinforces our position. With over 300 construction jobs being available during the build process and up to 50 full time posts being created on completion, this investment in the Glenrothes area is a positive boost for local jobs and good news for people across Fife.

“Fife has a lot to offer businesses as we aspire to be the best place to do business. I am delighted to see this demonstrated by the confidence that County Properties Group and AOC Group has in Fife’s skills base.”

Queensway Park director, Alan O’Connor, said: “This is one of the largest and most challenging projects we have been involved in and is the culmination of four years carefully planning every aspect of design and resilience. We have built an excellent experienced project team who fully understand the demands on such an important part of Scotland’s critical IT infrastructure.”

The campus will cater for all sizes of enterprise with facilities for co-location and dedicated server halls covering some 250,000 square feet. Phase one of the campus should be completed and ready for occupation within around 18 months and will accommodate up to 1,000 high performance computing racks.

Planning permission was given by Fife Council for the development in April, and County Properties Group and AOC Group have worked closely with the council’s Invest in Fife team to secure the data centre in Fife, which will help Scotland compete globally.