DataVita seeks approval for third Chapelhall data centre

DataVita has submitted a planning application for a third data centre at Chapelhall as part of the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone.

The Scottish operator is seeking planning permission in principle from North Lanarkshire Council for the next phase of a campus it has run for more than a decade. The project would sit beside DV1, which is already operating at Chapelhall, and DV3, which is under construction.

The proposed development would involve GBP £849.6 million of construction investment over two years. The build is expected to support 2,650 construction job years and create 120 permanent skilled roles on site, alongside apprenticeships.

At least 40% of capital contracts are expected to go to local suppliers. DV4 is also expected to generate more than GBP £30 million in business rates for North Lanarkshire Council over 25 years.

A further GBP £75 million is earmarked over 15 years for a community investment fund linked to the project. The fund would be governed by an independent board and would support locally generated projects.

Consultation changes

The application is accompanied by technical assessments covering energy and decarbonisation, noise, air quality, transport, flood risk and drainage, ecology and landscape, heritage, ground conditions, economic impact, and construction environmental management.

DataVita held four public consultation events before filing the application. Feedback from those sessions led to design changes, including a reduction in the maximum building height to 26 metres from 30 metres.

Plant equipment has also been moved to the south of the building, away from nearby homes. The plans include about 1,000 metres of new native hedgerow, at least double the length being removed.

A feasibility study is under way for a community garden and greenhouse using surplus heat from the data centre. The idea emerged during consultation with residents.

Energy and water

DV4 has been designed to meet the four criteria recommended by the Scottish Government for green data centres. Those criteria cover renewable power, energy efficiency, reduced water use, and reuse of excess heat.

The site would run on 100% renewable electricity backed by certificated Scottish generation. DataVita has set a target power usage effectiveness below 1.25 and said cooling would use a sealed closed-loop system with no evaporative cooling.

Water use is targeted at 0.05 litres per kilowatt hour or lower. Heat recovery has also been built into the design, and DataVita is in discussions with the new Monklands Replacement Hospital and the neighbouring BioCity campus over reusing surplus heat.

Air quality focus

The planning submission includes an air quality assessment based on what DataVita described as extreme operating scenarios. These include every standby generator across DV1, DV3, and DV4 running at the same time during a continuous 72-hour emergency.

DataVita said such conditions have never occurred on the Chapelhall campus. In more than ten years of operation, the site has not experienced a grid power cut, and DV1's standby generators have been needed for a total of one hour of unplanned running over that period outside routine tests.

DV4's generators would run on renewable HVO fuel with emissions controls. The installation would also operate under a SEPA permit.

Wider strategy

The project sits within the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, which the UK Government designated as the first such zone in Scotland. The zone is part of the government's industrial strategy and is expected to attract GBP £8.2 billion of private investment and more than 3,400 jobs to the region.

Scotland's AI strategy also includes a commitment to promote the country as a centre for green data centres and to maximise the economic potential of the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone. Data centres of this type are recognised as a national development under National Planning Framework 4.

DataVita, which is headquartered in Lanarkshire, also operates a second facility in Glasgow. The company is the largest supplier of cloud services to the Scottish public sector through the Scottish Government's Cloud and Hosting Services framework.

Commenting on the submission, Danny Quinn, Managing Director, DataVita, set the proposal against a wider debate over new digital infrastructure in Scotland.

He said: "We have seen a lot of data centre speculation in Scotland recently, and the vast majority of it will never be built. DataVita has been operating in Scotland for more than ten years, and we already underpin many of the critical services used day in, day out across Scotland. We built DV1 at Chapelhall, we are building DV3, and we run them ourselves with a Scottish team. DV4 is the next stage of that campus.

"Not all data centres are the same, and we are keen to change public perception. Scotland has an opportunity not only to become a data centre location but also an exporter of intelligence through low-carbon data centres. We do not think about exporting barley when we talk about the success of our whisky industry, and data centres should be no different.

"The application is now with the council and open for comment, and I would encourage people to look at the detail."