AI Growth Zones: Data centres with destiny

The ‘economic and social history’ tab of the Wikipedia page for Culham, Oxfordshire has three photos accompanying its text. A photo of Culham Old Bridge, a photo of the Culham C of E Primary School, and a plasma image from the MAST spherical tokamak machine at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy.

This small village (population 453) just happens to be home to the Culham Science Centre, an 800,000sqm scientific research site which just happens to include two major nuclear fusion experiments.  There’s also no direct service from London (Paddington to Didcot Parkway, get the two-car diesel train to Banbury which sets off once an hour). 

It also just happens to be the location of the first AI growth zone, strategically located at the UK Atomic Energy Agency. The decommissioning of JET, an experimental nuclear reactor and huge power consumer, means an abundance of capacity with its own direct 400kv powerline has been freed up for use by other projects. Enter stage left data centre developers.

This is the first of many AI growth zones planned across the country – and they have proven to be popular. Since expressions of interest opened, the government says it has received ‘thousands’ of applications to become one of a handful of special zones promised relaxed planning rules, access to the grid and investment.

For sites that don’t quite make the cut, there is also the commitment to allow data centres to be directed into the NSIP regime. While I’d personally question how much this would truly speed things up (especially when the government has pledged to decide appeals for such developments within 13 weeks anyway), it will be interesting to see if there are any innovative approaches that could be rolled out. For example, multiple facilities in different LPAs needed for triangulation promoted under a single DCO, or the collocation of generation and demand assets within a single site (more likely).

Details aside, the government’s message is clear: more, and quickly.  

However, these developments do not exist in isolation. Scaling up data centres means scaling up power, but the pace of growth anticipated potentially risks outpacing grid reform and the delivery of new sources of clean electricity. The Modern Industrial Strategy does acknowledge this, promising to provide better connections support for demand projects, particularly those ‘guaranteeing high-quality jobs and bringing the greatest economic value.’ It also says that it’s support for new-nuclear could enable co-location of this technology with AI data centres. Two measures I’d contend sound good in practice – but again who’s timescales potentially don’t match the pace and urgency of data centre development. 

For now, the industry does not seem perturbed. Off the back of the AI Action Plan, businesses Vantage, Nsale, and Kyndryl collectively pledged £14 billion in data centre projects in the UK. And it’s hardly a conference about anything now if you don’t hear ‘data centre’ dropped in at every opportunity. Collaboration between demand and generation projects will be vital to take advantage of gold dust sites like Culham and short circuit some of these issues to ensure projects can be delivered at pace.