CoreWeave's £8.2bn Scottish AI data centre can't run on renewable energy

A Guardian investigation published on 6 July 2026 found that the flagship British AI project, an £8.2bn data centre in rural Lanarkshire, has no real plan to power the site with renewable electricity, as promised at its announcement.

What the government promised at the announcement

In January 2026, the UK government announced a giant data centre in Lanarkshire, Scotland, a joint project of the US company CoreWeave and the Scottish company DataVita. The official pitch rested on three claims: 100% renewable power directly on site, delivery of the facility by 2030, and economic prosperity for the region.

The planned facility's power draw was compared to that of a nuclear reactor, which is why the promise of "green" power looked attractive against the backdrop of climate policy. The project is part of the AI Growth Zones programme: special zones for accelerated AI development with simplified approvals and priority access to infrastructure.

What the investigation found

Guardian journalists established that even before the public announcement, the government and developers acknowledged in private talks a serious "problem" with the site's power supply. A workable scheme to cover the enormous power demand with its own renewable sources simply did not exist: no plans and no working technical solutions. Publicly, the picture presented was entirely different.

• Project announced: January 2026
• Stated investment: £8.2bn
• Developers: CoreWeave (US) and DataVita (Scotland)
• Stated delivery date: 2030
• Power demand: comparable to a nuclear reactor
• Actual situation: there is no working plan for renewable power

"It's a smokescreen," is how residents of the village chosen for the build describe what is happening, in comments to

The Guardian.

Why this matters beyond Scotland

The Lanarkshire case is not isolated. The British AI Growth Zones are a broad government programme with several sites across the country. If the flagship project fails a fact check, the question arises: how honest are the energy promises for the other locations?

It is also a broader story about the gap between the public commitments of the AI boom and the physical limits of the power grid. Data centres consume enormous amounts of electricity, and concern is growing in the UK that the AI race is accelerating faster than the infrastructure to power it is being built.

What this means

The investigation casts doubt on the credibility of the "green" energy promises across the whole British AI Growth Zones strategy: if the flagship facility rests on commitments that cannot be met, the programme's other projects still owe the public a debt of credibility.

Frequently asked questions

Why can't it simply connect to the main power grid?

A data centre with the power draw of a nuclear reactor needs either a direct connection to large-scale generation or large-scale construction of its own infrastructure on site. According to The Guardian, neither is planned for Lanarkshire, and this is what the publication's sources call the "problem".

What does CoreWeave do?

CoreWeave is a US cloud company specialising in GPU computing for AI workloads. In 2025–2026 it has been expanding aggressively in Europe, signing major infrastructure contracts in the UK and other countries.