North Lincolnshire campus
Data centre campus in North Lincolnshire, UK, granted planning approval in April 2026 for up to 15 facilities and 1 GW of combined compute capacity.
Last refreshed: 26 April 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Does a 1 GW planning approval actually mean a 1 GW data centre will be built in North Lincolnshire?
- Where is the UK's 1 GW data centre being built?
- A 1 GW data centre campus has received planning approval in North Lincolnshire, East England. It is one of the largest consented digital infrastructure sites in Europe, though grid connection — separate from planning — remains a binding constraint.Source: Lowdown data-centres briefing
Background
The North Lincolnshire campus is a UK data centre development site with 1 GW of planning permission approved, placing it among the largest consented digital infrastructure sites in Europe. The site benefits from proximity to offshore wind connections in the Humber Estuary region and available industrial land in an area seeking economic reinvestment.
The approval is notable in the context of NESO's 50 GW data centre demand queue against 45 GW national peak demand. A 1 GW campus would represent a material fraction of the UK's existing national peak consumption and require substantial grid-connection investment. Planning consent does not guarantee grid connection — the two processes run in parallel — but it removes one of the two binding constraints on UK data centre development.
The North Lincolnshire site is one of several large UK campuses that have secured planning permission as part of the government's AI Growth Zone strategy, which aims to streamline approvals for strategic digital infrastructure projects.