Falkirk could be the host of one of the largest datacentres in the UK with plans submitted for a 300 megawatt facility on a disused commercial site on the outskirts of the town.

Plans submitted to the local council reveal that the sprawling 55-acre site on the local Glenbervie Business Park in Larbert could create thousands of jobs and attract nearly £1 billion investment into Scotland.

Apatura, a renewable energy developer with offices in Edinburgh and York, is behind the plans for the ‘green’ data centre, and has indicated that it will connect to the firm’s already-consented battery energy storage (BESS) site two miles north of the site.

The firm claims to have identified nine key datacentre sites across Scotland’s central belt, with ‘Gate 2 compliant grid connections totalling 2.4 GW of capacity’.

If the Larbert site, on land owned by Scottish Enterprise, is approved by local councillors, it would be potentially the largest single datacentre development project in the UK. The current largest standalone facility is thought to be the Vantage CWL1 campus located in Newport, Wales, operated by Vantage Data Centers, Europe’s largest by power capacity at 148 MW.

Developers claim the proposal could support more than 5,000 jobs during construction and more than 1,300 long-term skilled jobs during operation, of which more than 500 would be local jobs with a predicted average annual salary of £56,000.

Giles Hanglin, Apatura Energy Chief Executive Officer, said: “We have been working very closely with landowner Scottish Enterprise, Falkirk Council’s Inward Investment Team, as well as individuals and organisations in the Falkirk area to ensure our proposals dovetail with the local development plan and will make a sustainable and positive long-term contribution to the families and businesses in the area.

“The Larbert site has been selected for its strategic position and strong grid connectivity to the nearby Denny substation making it ideally placed to meet Scotland’s growing demand for secure, critical, and high-capacity digital infrastructure.”

He added: “Our plan is to make the Larbert Data Centre Campus home to one of the most advanced data centres in Europe. Its proximity to transport connections and key research, education, and innovation hubs makes it an ideal location, plus our site is only 20 miles northeast of the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone (designated by the UK Government). If approved, our Larbert project would cement central Scotland’s growing reputation as a global destination for investment in this fast-moving new technology.”

The Larbert application follows consultation with the local community, including two public events at Glenbervie House, where residents shared ideas for community development and green space improvements which can be included in future plans.

Apatura, which also unveiled plans last year to redevelop the former Ravenscraig steelworks last year, has listed its priority sites in Scotland as Glenbervie in Falkirk, Ravenscraig in North Lanarkshire, Wester Hermiston in Edinburgh, Freeport in West Lothian and Westerhill in East Dunbartonshire, all combined with battery energy storage systems (BESS).

In a prospectus produced by economic and community development consultants Glic, the company says it is ‘proposing to enable a c£12 billion capital investment to develop hyperscale green data centres and battery energy storage system (BESS) on five sites across the central belt of Scotland, with total programme costs of c£42 billion.’

‘This will comprise £12 billion on infrastructure expenditure (including the data centre and BESS) with an additional £30 billion expenditure on compute,’ the firm said.

However, there was no mention of its principal backer, which is believed to be the Liechtenstein-registered Klint Ventures Ltd.

The investment company lists Apatura as among its ‘growing portfolio’ of ‘early stage ventures’ and hosted an ‘exclusive breakfast seminar at the luxury hotel Hôtel Hermitage‘ in tax haven Monaco in May last year to attract investors, boasting of its ‘impressive returns’.

‘Apatura has applied for grid connections for seven data centre sites in Scotland with a total capacity of 1,800 MW. With an indicated value of over £600,000 per MW, they plan to sell 500 MW in the second half of 2025, which is expected to generate a profit of around £300 million,’ according to the Swedish financial news site Börsvärldens.