Fife Data Centre key numbers: how many jobs, how much investment, how big will it be?

For the company behind it, this is its flagship project within The Stoics network; a phrase residents and campaigners are likely to hear very often as this debate widens.

Developed by the ILI Group, The Stoics is a landmark network of three hyperscale green data centres” across Scotland.

Named after Stoic philosophers, there is Cato in Auchtertool, Aurelius in North Lanarkshire and Rufus in East Ayrshire. Together they form a Green Digital Corridor linking east, central,and west Scotland. Or, they will if the plans are approved.

The scale of the project is something to behold.

Cato in Auchtertool could have data centres 35m tall - imagine eight double decker busses stacked on top of each other - across land the equivalent of 100 football pitches, and all next door to a village with a population of 635 people.

For ILI, The Stoics is the future. The company’s press release spoke of them standing among the largest hyperscale data centre clusters in the world, more than twice the size of many of today’s leading campuses.

And then come the numbers.

ILI said the development represents an investment of around £5 billion, delivered in phases over several years.

It cited independent analysis by BiGGAR Economics indicates that construction could generate approximately £708 million in Gross Value Added (GVA) across Scotland, including around £105 million in Fife, while supporting around 9,660 job-years- a unit of measurement used in economic and project planning to calculate the total amount of labour required - across the country, including approximately 1450 in Fife.

Once operational, it said the development is expected to support around 540 jobs across Scotland, including approximately 262 in Fife, and generate more than £30 million in annual GVA locally. The site would also create around 120 permanent skilled jobs at full build-out.

Mark Wilson, chief executive of ILI Group, said: "Demand for data processing and AI infrastructure is growing rapidly across the world, and Scotland is well placed to play a leading role in meeting that demand thanks to its skilled workforce, strong renewable energy resources and existing industrial expertise.

"Cato represents a significant opportunity for Fife, bringing substantial investment, supporting high-quality jobs and helping to establish the region as a key location for future digital infrastructure. We look forward to continuing our engagement with local communities and stakeholders as the application progresses through the planning process."

One more number jumped out from the page. The Cato digital centre in Auchtertool would have a projected annual water use is equivalent to that of approximately 239 homes. The village it would dwarf consists of around 215 homes.

The company said Scottish Water confirmed sufficient capacity exists to support the project, but it was one of the key issues raised at a packed public meeting where the focus was on pushing Fife Council to ask for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

The numbers are simply the bullet points in this issue. The devil will be in the detail, and it is only just beginning to be absorbed.