Thousands have signed a petition against a proposed data centre at Thames Valley Park in Earley. The early-stage plan would replace three Microsoft office buildings on the eastern side of the business park.
The scheme was shown to residents in July at Pearsons Hall, Sonning, and people raised concerns about resource demand, environmental impact and cooling methods.
Jenna Graby, who started the Change.org petition, warned the shared facility could be a security risk: "It would be impossible to enforce UK legislation with international companies, therefore, it is a data security risk to the UK public to have a shared infrastructure."
She also highlighted wider sustainability worries: "Water, energy and transport are essential. Data centres, however, are not essential to our lives as humans." "In fact, given the detrimental impact to the environmental infrastructure and ecology, they are actively harmful to humans."
The petition has 4,084 signatures. Details are on Change.org and on the Thames Valley Park Data Centre website, which has a FAQs page.
The project team says cooling would use an air-cooling system: "Similar to how a car's radiator removes heat to keep the engine running smoothly, our proposed air-cooling system would continuously remove heat from the servers. Water will carry the heat from the data rooms to chillers on the roof where it will be cooled by air. The water circulates in a closed loop, meaning once operational, the data centre will require minimal new water."
The developers add the business park is already built-up, the visual impact would be limited and the scheme would deliver a minimum 10 per cent biodiversity net gain. They aim to submit a planning application to Wokingham Borough Council this autumn.
James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter
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