{"id":677702,"date":"2026-11-07T13:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T13:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/677702\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T13:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T13:08:08","slug":"lanarkshire-ai-datacentre-to-fully-rely-on-national-grid-despite-renewables-claim-datacentres-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/677702\/","title":{"rendered":"Lanarkshire AI datacentre to fully rely on National Grid despite renewables claim | Datacentres – UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

A datacentre company that said it would power a massive AI development near Glasgow with renewable energy has admitted that the scheme will be entirely served by the National Grid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DataVita, a key plank of the UK\u2019s AI strategy, had promised that the Lanarkshire project <\/a>would draw 1GW \u2013 the equivalent output of a small nuclear reactor, or Britain\u2019s largest windfarm \u2013 from green sources. But when the Guardian raised questions about the pledge<\/a>, it said the arrangement was \u201csubject to final commercial agreements, planning, grid and consenting processes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now, the company, which says its proposals would transform the economy of the village of Chapelhall, outside Airdrie, has quietly revised the plan. It now says the datacentres will be \u201cfully grid served\u201d with the possibility that solar and windfarms \u201ccould connect in the future\u201d.<\/p>\n

DataVita says the power it draws from the grid will be largely renewable energy. The company remains in receipt of \u00a3202m of public money<\/a> in the form of wealth guarantees from Britain\u2019s national wealth fund.<\/p>\n

DataVita was to build a designated \u2018AI growth zone\u2019 in Lanarkshire. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

While the shift may appear to have been inevitable given the implausibility of the claimed renewables provision, it could present a problem for both DataVita and Britain\u2019s AI strategy.<\/p>\n

Under the former prime minister Keir Starmer, Britain\u2019s AI strategy was to build massive datacentres in zones across the country. Their developers would get incentives \u2013 including, potentially, discounts on energy and expedited planning approvals. DataVita was to build one of the key developments associated with this strategy, an \u201cAI growth zone\u201d in Lanarkshire.<\/p>\n

But this strategy began to founder just over a year after it was announced, when the Guardian\u2019s investigations<\/a> demonstrated<\/a> that there was little solidity behind many announced plans.<\/p>\n

AI datacentres are some of the most energy-intensive structures humanity has ever built, and energy costs are higher in Britain than in most of Europe. There is a years-long wait for the UK developments to connect to the grid.<\/p>\n

Two key<\/a> UK<\/a> AI<\/a> investments \u2013 announced with great fanfare by Starmer\u2019s government \u2013 are on shaky ground after questions emerged over their ability to power themselves, or pay the high energy costs necessary to realise their stated ambitions. Now DataVita, which was supposed to bring 3,400 jobs to Lanarkshire by building a 500MW datacentre, also appears to be backtracking on its energy plans.<\/p>\n

DataVita left open the possibility that its datacentres would connect to renewable energy in the future. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

In a response to the Guardian, the company said it had not misrepresented its intention to supply renewables to the site earlier this year. \u201cOur commitment to renewable energy is unchanged,\u201d said a spokesperson. However, they added: \u201cOur datacentres are being designed to be grid served \u2026 Our grid supply will be through a renewable power purchase agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

This appears to contradict an earlier announcement, in which the company said: \u201cMore than 1GW of renewable energy capacity, including wind, solar, and battery storage, will be delivered through private wire connections directly linked to the datacentres.\u201d<\/p>\n

DataVita left open the possibility that its datacentres would connect to renewable energy in the future, through a wind and solar park it proposes to build in North Lanarkshire.<\/p>\n

Kat Jones, the director of the Edinburgh-based charity Action to Protect Rural Scotland<\/a>, said DataVita\u2019s apparent change in direction was \u201cemblematic of the hyperbolic claims being made by datacentre developers in Scotland\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHyperscale AI datacentres simply cannot run on renewable power alone, they absolutely need a highly reliable source of grid power,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is not surprising that the goalposts have now changed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A datacentre company that said it would power a massive AI development near Glasgow with renewable energy has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-677702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}