Lanarkshire AI datacentre to fully rely on National Grid despite renewables claim

DataVita has admitted that a planned AI datacentre development near Glasgow will be entirely served by the National Grid, after saying the scheme would be powered by 1GW of renewable energy. The company, a key plank of the UK’s AI strategy, had promised that the Lanarkshire project would draw the equivalent output of a small nuclear reactor, or of Britain’s largest windfarm, from green sources.

The operator has now quietly revised that plan. It says the datacentres at Chapelhall, outside Airdrie, will be “fully grid served”, with the possibility that solar and windfarms “could connect in the future”. DataVita says power drawn from the grid will be largely renewable energy. The company remains in receipt of £202m of public money in the form of wealth guarantees from Britain’s national wealth fund.

When the Guardian earlier this year raised questions about the renewables pledge, DataVita said the arrangement was “subject to final commercial agreements, planning, grid and consenting processes”. The company says its proposals would transform the economy of Chapelhall. It had been expected to bring 3,400 jobs to Lanarkshire by building a 500MW datacentre.

Under former prime minister Keir Starmer, Britain’s AI strategy was to build massive datacentres in designated zones across the country. Developers were to receive incentives, including, potentially, discounts on energy and expedited planning approvals. DataVita was to build one of the key developments associated with that strategy, an “AI growth zone” in Lanarkshire.

That strategy began to founder just over a year after it was announced, when Guardian investigations found little solidity behind many of the plans that had been publicly touted. AI datacentres are among the most energy-intensive structures ever built, and electricity costs in Britain are higher than in most of Europe. There is a years-long wait for UK developments to connect to the grid.

Two other high-profile UK AI investments announced with fanfare by Starmer’s government have also come under pressure after questions emerged over their ability to secure power or to pay the high energy costs needed to realise their stated ambitions. DataVita now appears to be revising the energy plans that were central to its own pitch.

Responding to the Guardian, the company said it had not misrepresented its intention to supply renewables to the site earlier this year. “Our commitment to renewable energy is unchanged,” a spokesperson said. They added: “Our datacentres are being designed to be grid served … Our grid supply will be through a renewable power purchase agreement.”

That formulation appears to contradict an earlier announcement in which DataVita said: “More than 1GW of renewable energy capacity, including wind, solar, and battery storage, will be delivered through private wire connections directly linked to the datacentres.” The company has left open the possibility that its facilities would later connect to renewable generation through a wind and solar park it proposes to build in North Lanarkshire.

Kat Jones, director of the Edinburgh-based charity Action to Protect Rural Scotland, said the apparent change of direction was “emblematic of the hyperbolic claims being made by datacentre developers in Scotland”. “Hyperscale AI datacentres simply cannot run on renewable power alone, they absolutely need a highly reliable source of grid power,” she said. “It is not surprising that the goalposts have now changed.”

The Guardian reported that the shift could present a problem for DataVita and for Britain’s AI strategy, given the energy intensity of hyperscale campuses and the long wait for grid connections. How quickly Chapelhall can secure capacity, and whether a renewable power purchase agreement will match the earlier private-wire claims, remain unresolved.