Scrapped Britishvolt gigafactory set to house Europe’s “largest AI data center”

Plans to build Europe’s largest AI data center on a former coalfield in Cambois, North East England, have been given the greenlight.

The project, led by Blackstone and built by Renaissance Land Limited, is expected to create 1,600 jobs and generate inward investment worth several billion pounds.

As the site is located on a coalfield, the Coal Authority has supported site inspections and enabled a permit that allows developers to carry out multiple types of ground investigations, including gas and groundwater monitoring and sampling.

The idea is to make sure that where the works come into contact with coal, adequate controls are in place to ensure public safety.

“We’ve recently been working to make this process streamlined for developers, so development on the coalfield can happen efficiently and safely,” said Riwilo Masulani, principal permitting manager at the Coal Authority.

“To reflect these changes we have updated our permitting terms and conditions to make the process much simpler. This includes a capped limit on indemnity, reduced insurance requirements and recognized arrangements for public sector bodies who are required to comply with HM Treasury guidelines.”

Sites for data centers can be hard to find thanks to their significant requirements for land and power. However, old industrial sites and power stations are increasingly being repurposed.

Power stations in particular are likely to have transmission infrastructure already in place, with Microsoft, for example, set to build new data centers on the sites of decommissioned power stations at Eggborough and Skelton Grange, near Leeds in northern England.

The Skelton Grange site consisted of two coal-fired plants built in the 1940s and 1960s and, like so many coal-fired power stations, was decommissioned in the 1990s as part of a move to more renewable power.

In the US, meanwhile, Amazon is developing a campus on the site of the former Birchwood power station in Virginia.

The Cambois site was acquired by Blackstone and its data center subsidiary QTS in April this year after plans from Britishvolt for a £3.8 billion gigafactory fell through and the company went into administration.

The site, which forms part of the former coal yards at Blyth Power Station, is said to have good sea, rail and road links, along with access to renewable energy and water for cooling. It has been identified as an Investment Zone, giving the owners a number of tax incentives.