Data centre planned for former Didcot A Power Station site

Willow Developments LLC submitted the application in January to the Vale and South Oxfordshire District councils. It is hoped the data centres will be a valuable addition to the Science Vale and its economy and offer hundreds of construction jobs as well as direct employment once it is built.

These buildings will contain data halls, associated electrical and plant rooms, loading bay and storage space, office administration areas and screened plant at roof level and will also include emergency generators, diesel tanks and filling area, electrical switch room, water sprinkler pump room and storage tank, a security building, site access, internal access road, plus hard standing and soft landscaping.

The Mayor of Didcot, Eleanor Hards explained that she did not know what company was behind the plans for the two new data centres and suggested that this fact would be kept secret until later in the planning process.

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She said: “Usually with these sorts of plans the ownership is not in the public domain until a later date.”

However, Ms Hards is apprehensive about the plans and she is concerned the data centre will be using too much electricity.

She said: “It is not clear whether the actual units will be using renewables for their electricity or whether they will be making provision elsewhere.

“If they were using renewable sources of electricity there, I think I would feel much more positive about it. People think that paperless is environmentally friendly, but they overlook the amount of electricity that is being used.”

The operator of the data centre has a commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040, which is ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement.

As part of this commitment, the operator is investing in efficiency in their operations and is on a path to be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025.

The operator expects to obtain renewable energy equivalent to the energy consumed on site by enabling large-scale renewable energy projects in the UK, supplemented by solar panels on site.

The planning application is currently open for public feedback via a link on the Didcot council website.