Editorial Team
7 min read
DataVita now says its proposed Lanarkshire AI data centres will be fully grid served, with direct renewable connections only a future possibility. The change in public presentation raises questions about promised power costs and community benefits, although the DV4 planning application already assumed grid supply.
DataVita, the data-centre and cloud-services operator developing the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone near Chapelhall, outside Airdrie, now says its proposed centres will be supplied entirely through the electricity grid. Direct connections to nearby renewable generation have become a future possibility rather than the basis of its public power plan.
The distinction matters because the project was promoted as combining large-scale AI computing with its own renewable infrastructure. Grid supply can be accompanied by renewable electricity contracts, but that does not establish the direct electrical connections previously promised—or demonstrate that the earlier cost forecasts still apply.
Company rendering published with DataVita’s January 2026 AI Growth Zone announcement. Image: DataVita. Source: DataVita January announcement.
In its FAQ updated in November, DataVita says its centres are fully grid served and do not depend on any particular generator. Nearby renewable proposals are proceeding separately, through their own application, and could eventually supply the campus directly alongside other renewable suppliers. Their layout and capacity remain subject to environmental assessment and consultation.
That differs from the company's 29 January announcement. It described 500MW of AI-ready data-centre capacity alongside more than 1GW of renewable infrastructure, including wind, solar and battery storage, to be delivered through private wires directly linked to the centres. It also envisaged exporting excess clean electricity to the national network and forecast power costs below 10p per kWh.
Those capacity figures do not establish electricity output over time or a continuous match with computing demand. The renewable infrastructure figure also includes storage; it should not be treated as proof that the centres could operate independently of the grid.
DataVita disputes that it misrepresented its earlier intentions. In a response quoted in the 7 November report, a spokesperson said its renewable commitment was unchanged and that grid supply would be through a renewable power purchase agreement. The company had previously qualified its renewable arrangements as subject to commercial agreements, planning, grid and consenting processes.
A renewable power purchase agreement concerns procurement; a private wire concerns the physical route by which a generator supplies a customer. As the planning analysis explains, the former does not establish the latter. The updated FAQ supplies no replacement electricity-price forecast or connection timetable against which to assess January's cost promise.
The FAQ also presents south Scotland’s grid electricity as relatively low carbon and says no gas use is planned within the centres.
The 7 November report describes lengthy UK grid-connection waits and high electricity costs as obstacles to AI infrastructure. It does not establish a specific delay to DataVita’s connections. The FAQ says the network operator manages connections through the normal process, without giving a delivery timetable.
The public revision should not be read as proof that DataVita has just changed the electricity strategy in its DV4 planning application.
According to the planning analysis, DV4's energy statement, dated 31 August 2026, already described a transmission-level grid connection and expressly excluded a private-wire connection from that application. It allowed infrastructure for a possible future private wire without relying on it in the submitted energy case.
DataVita announced the application for planning permission in principle on 2 September. DV4 is a proposed building at Lancaster Avenue in Chapelhall; it is one component of the wider programme. The 500MW ambition applies to the AI Growth Zone, while the September announcement gave no electrical load for DV4. Treating the two as the same project would overstate what that application establishes.
The analysis records DataVita’s forecasts of £849.6 million in DV4 construction investment, 120 permanent jobs and 2,650 construction job-years. Job-years measure work over time, rather than that number of lasting posts. These are developer projections, not independently verified outcomes or benefits secured by an issued permission.
The analysis says the change in public wording is not evidence that a formal amended application has been lodged or a permission granted or withdrawn. DataVita's own FAQ likewise states that AI Growth Zone designation grants no planning permission: each part requires consent through the normal process. The zone is a UK government designation supporting AI infrastructure investment and also includes innovation space for skills and research.
DataVita is part of HFD Group and already operates infrastructure in the area. A May 2021 acquisition report records that it had operated the Fortis data centre in Lanarkshire since 2016, serving businesses and public-sector organisations, before acquiring it with £45 million of support from HFD Group. That report also recorded DataVita’s plans to take Fortis off-grid using wind generation and battery-powered backup. It establishes a longer history of pursuing energy independence, without demonstrating that those earlier plans were completed.
Public backing makes the distinction between operating assets, financed expansion and longer-term proposals consequential. The National Wealth Fund, the public financing institution supporting the expansion, said in its 18 August announcement that its £202 million guarantee backed an approximately £300 million debt facility. The guarantee covers 80% of a £252.5 million lending tranche from ING, ABN AMRO and Santander. Lending from the Scottish National Investment Bank and Siemens Financial Services is uncovered.
The package finances expansion of DV1 and construction of DV3. The fund said both centres’ full capacity was contracted to CoreWeave, an AI cloud infrastructure provider, under a 15-year lease. It forecasts around 600 construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs for the two developments. That establishes a commercial commitment for these facilities, rather than funding or consent for DV4 or the entire 500MW programme.
DataVita's FAQ puts the wider zone's investment ambition above £8.2 billion and forecasts approximately 3,400 jobs across construction, operations and the supply chain. These are project-wide company projections, not a count of permanent jobs at a single centre.
The company also promises up to £543 million for local communities over 15 years, through the AI Growth Zone Futures Partnership. That money builds as centres become operational and generate revenue. Its stated formula includes £50,000 a year per megawatt of data-centre IT load and £15,000 per megawatt of directly connected renewables. The renewable component therefore depends on infrastructure that the updated power description leaves for the future.
The next test is how the individual planning applications, electricity arrangements and benefit commitments fit together. The planning analysis identifies later energy-statement revisions, environmental assessment documents and council or ministerial decisions as the records that will establish what is actually being pursued and permitted.
The analysis also describes Scotland’s direction, effective 17 September 2026, requiring environmental impact assessment for data centres exceeding 50MW where the specified Schedule 2 development categories apply. That rule does not settle DV4’s position when its electrical load has not been stated in the cited announcement. An environmental assessment is not itself planning permission.
DataVita says nearby generation will have its own application and consultation. It also proposes a public consultation in the first quarter of 2028 on governance of the community partnership. The FAQ separately says £1 million supported by HFD Charitable Foundation starts now, with another £2 million to follow, outside that long-term structure.
For the larger promises, the outstanding evidence is more specific: a delivery timetable for grid capacity, the terms underpinning electricity-cost forecasts, and the scale and timing of any direct renewable connections. Those details would allow the energy proposition to be tested. The timing and scale of operational IT load and directly connected renewables will determine how the company’s payment formula translates into community funding.
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