Former power station to house 6m sq ft Cambois Data Centre Campus
An application from Renaissance Land for the construction of 10 data centres on the former Blyth Power station has been approved by Northumberland Council.
The former coal stocking yard will house the buildings, a substation, emergency generators, and other associated works.
The project team consists of real estate investment company QTS, which will operate the site, asset manager Blackstone, planners Quod, architect Corgan, environmental surveyors Arcadis, and Cundall as civil engineers.
Approval has been recommended for the scheme, with a £40,000 contribution recommended to increase the size of the Wader Mitigation Site, to make up for the loss of on-site breeding habitat.
Blyth Power Station closed in 2001 and was demolished in 2003.
The vacant brownfield site is approximately 250-acres, located to the west and south of Cambois village and around 30km north of Newcastle.
The site was for a long time earmarked as a Britishvolt gigafactory site for electric vehicle battery production.
QTS, bought by Blackstone in 2021 for $10bn, has 60 data centres in operation or under construction globally, but this would be its first in the UK, and only second in Europe.
Each of the 10 580,000 sq ft buildings will provide approximately 72 megawatt of IT capacity, as well as contain an office and support departments.
The buildings would be identical in design, with three storeys and an indicative height of 35 metres, including rooftop planting.
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