Amazon is awaiting a planning resolution on detailed proposals for a four-building knowledge centre improvement on the former Didcot A Energy Station website in Oxfordshire.
This isn’t the primary time that plans for an information centre at Didcot A have gone earlier than the Vale of White Horse District Council. An earlier define planning utility was filed underneath a improvement firm in July 2021 and subsequently authorized, with the most recent submission overlaying the subsequent stage of element as Amazon confirms its involvement with the venture and appears to maneuver the venture ahead.
If granted, the scheme would add Didcot A to the rising listing of former energy technology websites being repurposed for knowledge infrastructure – a pattern being pushed as a lot by electrical energy as it’s by accessible land.
Amazon has not publicly set out a building timeline, however the improvement sits inside a wider push by the corporate to broaden its UK knowledge centre footprint. Amazon has beforehand stated it can make investments £8 billion between 2024 and 2028 to construct, function and keep knowledge centres within the UK, with Didcot anticipated to kind a notable a part of that programme alongside one other proposed website in Iver, Buckinghamshire.
For native planners, the rapid query is whether or not the detailed plans align with the parameters set by the sooner define consent and whether or not the event is appropriate in its proposed kind for the world surrounding the previous station. There has already been rising scrutiny on the information centre sector from environmentalists – however the UK Authorities has already showcased its willingness to become involved if tasks are rejected.
The Vale of White Horse District Council is predicted to make a proper planning resolution by January 27, 2026.
Energy station websites have gotten the apparent goal
Didcot A is much from distinctive in attracting knowledge centre curiosity. Builders are more and more trying to former energy stations as potential campuses, with quite a lot of high-profile tasks both in planning or being actively mentioned across the nation.
Current examples embrace proposals for a data centre at the former Cottam coal-fired power station in Nottinghamshire, Drax’s plans for a 100MW knowledge centre at its Selby energy station, and Rushcliffe Borough Council’s ambition to bring a data centre to the site of the former Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station.
The widespread thread is clear: energy.
In a market the place grid connections can take years to safe and reinforcement works might be eye-wateringly costly, outdated technology websites provide one thing more and more uncommon – current high-capacity connections that had been initially designed to maneuver massive quantities of electrical energy.
That benefit can considerably cut back one of many greatest boundaries going through new knowledge centre tasks: getting sufficient energy to website, and getting it shortly sufficient to match demand.
Didcot A, which beforehand provided electrical energy to the Nationwide Grid, is subsequently a lovely proposition for hyperscale builders looking for places able to supporting energy-hungry services with out being stranded behind the connections queue.
