Key facts
- DataVita said its Lanarkshire datacentres will be fully grid served, with solar and wind farms possibly connecting later.
- The company had said more than 1GW of renewable capacity would be delivered through private wire connections to the datacentres.
- DataVita holds £202 million in wealth guarantees from Britain's national wealth fund.
- A DataVita spokesperson said the company's commitment to renewable energy is unchanged and grid supply will be through a renewable power purchase agreement.
- Kat Jones of Action to Protect Rural Scotland said hyperscale AI datacentres cannot run on renewable power alone.
DataVita, the datacentre company behind a planned AI development in Lanarkshire near Glasgow, has revised its energy plans and now says the datacentres will be fully served by the National Grid, the Guardian reported on November 7. The company had previously said more than 1GW of renewable energy capacity, including wind, solar and battery storage, would be delivered through private wire connections directly linked to the datacentres.
When the Guardian raised questions about the pledge, DataVita said the arrangement was subject to final commercial agreements, planning, grid and consenting processes. The company now says solar and wind farms could connect in the future, including through a wind and solar park it proposes to build in North Lanarkshire. A DataVita spokesperson said the company had not misrepresented its intention to supply renewables to the site earlier this year and that its commitment to renewable energy was unchanged. The spokesperson said grid supply would be through a renewable power purchase agreement.
DataVita remains in receipt of £202 million of public money in the form of wealth guarantees from Britain's national wealth fund. The company was to build a designated AI growth zone in Lanarkshire and was supposed to bring 3,400 jobs to the area by building a 500MW datacentre.
Under former prime minister Keir Starmer, Britain's AI strategy was to build large datacentres in zones across the country, with developers receiving incentives that could include energy discounts and expedited planning approvals. The Guardian reported that the strategy began to founder just over a year after it was announced, when its investigations showed little solidity behind many announced plans.
Kat Jones, director of the Edinburgh-based charity Action to Protect Rural Scotland, said DataVita's apparent change in direction was emblematic of the hyperbolic claims being made by datacentre developers in Scotland. She said hyperscale AI datacentres cannot run on renewable power alone and need a highly reliable source of grid power.