Lanarkshire AI datacentre drops 1GW renewables pledge and will rely fully on the grid

DataVita, the company building a huge AI datacentre near Glasgow in Lanarkshire, has stepped back from its promise to power the project with renewable energy. The company has now admitted that the scheme will run entirely on electricity from the National Grid.

At first, the company said the project outside the village of Chapelhall, near Airdrie, would draw 1GW of power from green sources. That amount is equal to the output of a small nuclear reactor, and also equal to the output of Britain's largest windfarm.

After the Guardian raised questions about the pledge, the company said the arrangement was 'subject to final commercial agreements, planning, grid and consenting processes'. It has now revised the plan, saying the datacentres will be 'fully grid served', while solar and windfarms 'could connect in the future'.

DataVita has received 202 million pounds of public money from Britain's national wealth fund in the form of wealth guarantees. The company says the power it draws from the grid will be largely renewable energy.

The project was an important part of Britain's AI strategy. Under former prime minister Keir Starmer, the plan was to build datacentre zones across the country, with developers offered incentives including discounts on energy and faster planning approvals. DataVita was to build an 'AI growth zone' in Lanarkshire.

The strategy began to falter just over a year after it was announced, when the Guardian's investigations showed there was little solid ground behind many of the announced plans.

AI datacentres are among the most energy-intensive structures humanity has ever built. Energy costs in Britain are higher than in most of Europe, and new projects in the UK face a years-long wait to connect to the grid.

Two major AI investments announced with great fanfare by the Starmer government are now on shaky ground, with questions over their ability to secure power or pay the high energy costs needed to realise their ambitions. DataVita's project was supposed to bring 3,400 jobs to Lanarkshire by building a 500MW datacentre.

In a response 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. But they added: 'Our datacentres are being designed to be grid served. Our grid supply will be through a renewable power purchase agreement.'

That appears to contradict an earlier announcement, in which the company 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.'

DataVita has left open the possibility that its datacentres could connect to renewable energy in the future, through a wind and solar park it proposes to build in North Lanarkshire.

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