Plans have been submitted for a proposed 1GW data centre campus at Chapelcross in southern Scotland. 

The proposed data centre is being developed by CX Tech, which wants to build a large campus on land north of the former Chapelcross nuclear power station near Annan, and could represent around £16.5 billion of investment.

If approved, the new data centre campus would be among the largest currently in the planning system, with around 162,000 sqm of data centre floorspace across eight buildings. It will be complemented by a training centre, industrial space, a substation and supporting infrastructure.

While it will certainly be sizable, it’s not the only data centre of this size to go through the planning system in recent times. In fact, a similarly sized scheme, the 1GW Elsham Tech Park in North Lincolnshire, secured planning permission earlier this year. 

It’s also nowhere near the largest data centre proposed. While it’s currently amongst the largest proposed data centres in the UK, that is until the proposed Xlinks site gets into the planning process, there are plans for data centres 10 times the size of Chapelcross. That includes a 10GW data centre campus in Ohio, currently being planned by SB Energy. 

How will it fare as Scotland tightens scrutiny on data centres?

While it may not be the largest in the world, it’s still pretty sizable, and CX Tech’s proposal for a 1GW data centre comes amidst tightened scrutiny of data centres across Scotland. In fact, it arrives mere weeks after the country set a new requirement for all new data centres above 50MW to have an Environmental Impact Assessment before they can gain planning approval. 

It also lands amidst lobbying by parties within Holyrood for a moratorium on data centres. While the SNP has previously backed those proposals, it ultimately refused to back a Green Party motion to physically enact a block on new data centre developments. Instead, the Scottish Parliament backed a non-binding motion calling for national planning guidance and a definition of hyperscale data centres, while stating that planning and consenting decisions on such applications should not be made until that work is completed.

That makes the energy proposition behind Chapelcross particularly important.

The site is being positioned partly around its existing electrical infrastructure and access to renewable generation across southern Scotland. It sits alongside 132kV infrastructure, while SP Energy Networks completed a £19 million refurbishment of the 14.23km transmission line between Gretna and Chapelcross in August.

CX Tech says around 1GW of potential renewable generation has been identified within 5km of the site and 2GW within 20km. It notes that it’s currently exploring private-wire connections to wind, solar and biomass generation, alongside grid supply and potentially energy storage, but while that may allay some fears, it has not yet confirmed exact details. 

And, ultimately, the devil will be in the detail. Other sites across Scotland are facing scrutiny for their impact on the local electricity grid, even when they can secure a connection. ILI Group’s proposed 600MW Cato campus in Fife, for example, has secured an approved Gate 2 position for its proposed connection, and yet it’s facing severe backlash from the local community. 

Thankfully, CX Tech appears to be ahead of the latest twists and turns in Scottish policy covering data centres. It says an extensive Environmental Impact Assessment has already been undertaken for Chapelcross, with environmental scoping beginning earlier this year.

The developer is also targeting a PUE of 1.30 or better and proposes closed-loop, non-evaporative air cooling. It says water consumption would be equivalent to around four homes per data centre building each year.

It’s also hoping to hit net zero operation, with renewable electricity and efficiency measures intended to minimise operational emissions, but we’ve seen before data centres promising to be ‘green’ without being clear in the details. 

Even with all the good intentions, however, the Chapelcross proposal is still facing local opposition, with campaigners raising concerns over its scale, power demand and environmental impact.

Development could run to 2035

It’s that scale that could see the Chapelcross data centre development take place across a number of years – with CX Tech intending to develop the campus in phases over approximately eight years, allowing capacity to be added in line with operator requirements and demand.

That means if construction successfully gets underway in 2027, we won’t see the site fully operational until 2035 at the earliest. That should be good news for construction jobs in the area, with CX Tech estimating that around 750 jobs will be supported during the construction phase, with another 450 permanent roles once the campus is fully developed. 

Its proposals also include a training centre and around 40 apprenticeships for each year of construction.

Graeme Anderson, Chief Executive of CX Tech, noted, “We are not designing this around a single operator or a single point in the market cycle. Our ambition is to create an infrastructure platform capable of evolving with the requirements of AI, cloud and high-performance computing, giving major operators the opportunity to deploy and expand at significant scale.”