A huge artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing data centre is to be built on the site of an abandoned battery factory site, after a council gave the go-ahead to plans for the massive £10bn development.
Northumberland County Council has approved outline planning permission for US investment giant Blackstone to build the data centre at the former Britishvolt gigafactory site in Cambois, near Blyth.
The site will consist of 10 buildings constructed over more than 133 acres (540,000 sq m), and could create hundreds of jobs. It is further hoped that the computing power generated by the data centre will lay the groundwork for a new regional tech hub.
Members of the council’s strategic planning committee voted unanimously to approve the plans on Tuesday, although further details will still need to be confirmed in a series of future planning applications before construction can begin.
Blackstone has said the development of the data centres would create more than 1,600 jobs, including 1,200 long-term construction roles. In addition, it was estimated that 2,700 jobs would be created across the wider local area as a result of the development.
As part of Blackstone’s earlier deal to buy the land, the company paid Northumberland County Council £110m for the site. It was also agreed that a buy-back clause requiring the land to only be used to build another gigafactory would be altered.
The council has said the money will be ring-fenced to create a further 5,000 jobs in the county. Blackstone data subsidiary QTS said it expected construction to begin next year.
The site had originally been earmarked for Britishvolt’s flagship battery $4bn gigafactory. That development, had it gone ahead, would have employed 3,000 people directly and another 5,000 through the supply chain, producing enough batteries for more than 300k electric vehicles every year and keeping the UK at the forefront of the global electric vehicle industry.
Britishvolt entered administration in January 2023, however, owing somewhere in the region of £150m. After a series of false dawns and takeovers the plans were eventually mothballed, with the latest redevelopment plans announced late last year.
