Planners have given the green light to a proposed data center - said to be one of Europe’s largest - near South Killingholme in Lincolnshire.
The plans cover up to three data center buildings capable of 384MW of IT load over a 309,000 square meter footprint, including office space on an almost 76-hectare site on land south of the A160.
There will be a new electricity substation, with a maximum height, provision for emergency back-up generators and fuel storage and a district heating unit, as well as a horticultural glass house that will be heated by reusing the excess heat from the data center.
Humber Tech Park said customers are likely to include companies training AI models, and that the data center would provide for critical infrastructure - a matter of national importance, it said.
There's a large-scale energy supply from both North Sea gas and offshore wind, it added, while the proposed Viking Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) scheme offers the potential for large-scale net zero energy supply, with construction expected to start by 2025.
The development will create almost 400 well-paid jobs, according to North Lincolnshire Council, and could attract more than £3 billion in investment.
“This is an unprecedented investment in the area, and it will be a magnet for attracting other high-tech businesses to make North Lincolnshire their home. The 400 jobs would be highly skilled and highly paid – averaging around £50,000 a year for operational employees," said council leader Rob Waltham.
"This will mean residents from our area who usually need to move to the city to access this type of work will now be able to access these well-paid jobs in the technology sector on their doorstep. More will be employed during the construction phase."
At a national scale, the developers said AI data centers are less geographically constrained than cloud-based data centers, which need to be sited in availability zones (AZs) where they can hook up with other data centers to share data and provide the necessary guarantees to customers on data availability.
"AI Data Centres are more footloose, and this allows them to be located away from the AZs around London," they said.
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"It presents a major investment opportunity for the South Humber Bank area and aligns with the government’s Levelling Up agenda."
The scheme had previously faced local opposition over the fact that it's to be built on greenfield land, as well as concerns about noise and an increase in traffic.
There are two data centers already operating in the area: the Nasstar zero-carbon Smartbunker - housed in an ex-Nato underground bunker - and Flexiscale Lincoln, which offers carrier-neutral colocation services.
