TL;DR
CX Tech Limited has asked Dumfries and Galloway Council to approve eight data centres, each rated at 120MW, on ground just north of the old Chapelcross nuclear plant. The National reports the campus would total 1,000MW, larger than any operating site worldwide. The application arrived only weeks after ministers in Edinburgh agreed that no hyperscale data centre decisions would be taken until national guidance is in place.
The proposal
The application went in on Tuesday. Construction would run over eight years, and the developer promises 40 apprenticeships and 750 building jobs, followed by around 450 permanent direct roles once the site is running. For scale, the biggest campus now operating, Switch’s Citadel in Nevada, is rated at 650MW.
CX Tech’s chief executive, Graeme Anderson, called it “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” that could combine Scotland’s renewable energy strengths with digital infrastructure and skilled jobs. The developer says the centres will be “operationally net zero”.
The objections
Campaigners estimate the campus would draw seven million MWh of electricity a year. Kat Jones, who leads the campaign body Action to Protect Rural Scotland, argued that a site using “the equivalent of a third of Scotland’s electricity use” in a year could not be accommodated, and called the timing “a cynical move” that tests Parliament’s vote two weeks ago.
She said ministers have told developers they may still apply, but that no decisions will follow until guidance exists, and urged them to set out their position to councils clearly.
A local campaign, “Say NO to Chapelcross AI Data Centre”, says residents have been given four weeks to work through 166 documents. Member Lewis-Ann Garner disputed the developer’s framing of the site: “This is on agricultural fields and not the decommissioned nuclear site.” Another member, Sam Gibson, said many villagers learned of the plans only through the campaign, and that questions at consultations had been dismissed as “too technical”.
A wider pattern
Chapelcross is one of several contested schemes. In Cheshire, residents near Lymm are organising against Innova’s proposed Spodegreen campus, and the BBC cites industry figures showing UK councils received upwards of 80 data centre applications from 2023 to 2025. Scotland has already seen MSPs vote to hold planning rulings while guidance is drawn up.
Looking forward
The application will test whether Holyrood’s pause holds when a developer files anyway. For AI firms planning UK capacity, the lesson is that energy demand now sits alongside land use at the centre of planning fights, and projects of this size should expect their power figures to be contested line by line.