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The north England site that was going to house a gigafactory from start-up Britishvolt has been purchased by a US private equity firm, which plans to build one of the largest data centres in Europe.
The 95-hectare site in Blyth has been bought by Blackstone Group for an estimated £110m, according to documents from Northumberland County Council.
Council leader Glen Sanderson said: “Driving growth and jobs is a key priority for this council. Next week, cabinet will consider this really unique opportunity for Northumberland, which offers a huge boost to the regeneration and renaissance of the local area.
“The project would represent a significant inward investment of up to £10bn, putting our county at the forefront of developments in the digital economy and delivering over 1,600 direct jobs, including 1,200 long-term construction jobs and over 2,700 indirect jobs over the course of the development.
“If agreed, the council would receive up to £110m in exchange for amending the buy-back option on the NEP3 land site, and use the proceeds to establish a fund to drive investment, including in the economic corridor along our fantastic new Northumberland Line.”
Britishvolt originally planned to produce batteries for the automotive industry and started construction on the gigafactory in 2021. However, work was halted in August 2022 due to funding difficulties, and it subsequently went into administration the following February.
Recharge Industries, a subsidiary of US-based Scale Facilitation, said it planned to buy the company and resume construction on the gigafactory in late 2023, with an initial focus on batteries for energy storage. But in April last year, Britishvolt’s administrators EY said that Recharge Industries had defaulted on its agreement after missing the final instalment of a total payment of £8.57m.
According to the FT, even if Blackstone secures the land, there is no guarantee that the data centre project will go ahead as it is contingent on securing planning permission, electricity supply and sufficient internet connectivity at the site.
The British-American business law firm Norton Rose Fulbright recently produced a report, which predicted that demand for data centres globally could increase significantly due to the recent explosion in artificial intelligence (AI). “The prevailing consensus is that 2024 will witness new heights in data centre service demand,” it said.
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