Now this is an interesting way to manage waste heat.

Internet Villages International is building a £600m ($1.2 billion US) green powered data farm in a rural part of southern Scotland. The complex comes complete with a 700-home development and is expected to create 500 jobs.

A lot of technical details are lacking in the BBC report, but one interesting aspect of the project is how they plan to use the waste heat from the data centers.

He also promised that the site would have 20 single-storey data centres covering 3m sq ft of floor space.

Under the proposals, waste heat from the site could be transferred to the homes development, which IVI described as a "700-home eco internet village", uitilising green energy.

"He" is Peter Hewkin, Internet Villages International's founder. Also, the green energy, he says, will come from nearby wind farms and an E-On biomass plant.

Construction is expected to start in 2008 and end in 2010. This should prove interesting to watch...