CX Tech Ltd has lodged a planning application for a 1 GW data center and technology campus at the former Chapelcross nuclear power station near Annan, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The company values the eight-building CX Technology Campus at £16.5 billion ($21.8 billion). The application, validated by Dumfries and Galloway Council on Sept. 28 under reference 26/1649/PIP, is detailed on the project's website.
CX Tech is seeking planning permission in principle for up to 162,000 square meters (1.74 million sq ft) of data center floorspace across eight buildings, plus an on-site substation, industrial space and a training center. Construction would be phased over about eight years, starting in 2027 and running to 2035 if consent is granted. The developer projects up to 750 construction jobs, roughly 450 permanent roles and 40 apprenticeships a year, figures carried by STV News.
Power is the crux. The 55-hectare site sits beside a 132kV grid supply point and is ringed by what CX Tech calls "substantial existing and potential renewable energy." The developer is exploring direct and private-wire connections to wind, solar and biomass, and claims the campus will run exclusively on renewables, with green fuel rather than diesel for backup, according to Data Center Dynamics. Cooling would use a closed-loop, non-evaporative design, and waste heat reuse is under study.
"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Dumfries and Galloway and for Scotland," said Graeme Anderson, chief executive of CX Tech.
Opposition has already organized. Action to Protect Rural Scotland says the 1,000 MW capacity exceeds that of any data center operating today and matches the electricity demand of about 2.2 million households. A petition against the scheme has drawn roughly 1,000 signatures, pointing to grid strain, household bills and the loss of greenfield land and woodland.
"The site at Chapelcross should be the best place to put a data center by utilising a decommissioned brownfield site," said Laura Moodie, Scottish Green MSP for South Scotland. "But the proposal which has been lodged is reckless and endangers our energy supply and natural environment."
Timing adds risk. The Scottish government says it will publish national guidance for large data centers before Christmas and does not expect planning decisions before then, after declining a Scottish Greens request to pause applications outright. Projects above 50 MW already require an environmental impact assessment, as Capacity reports.
The scale towers over the market it would enter. Baxtel tracks 45 data centers across Scotland, operated by 15 providers, the largest being DataVita: Lanarkshire DV1 at 12 MW. The campus would sit in the United Kingdom, where consents of this size remain rare.
Chapelcross generated power from 1959 until 2004, Scotland's first commercial nuclear station. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has since brought in a private partner, CX Power, to find new uses for the site, and CX Tech is now pushing the data center plan forward ahead of an Oct. 29 consultation deadline.
If Chapelcross clears planning, it becomes a template for converting Britain's retiring industrial sites into gigawatt-scale AI campuses. If it stalls, it shows that even brownfield land with existing grid connections cannot escape the opposition and regulatory caution now gathering around large data centers.
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