A massive data centre and battery storage site is planned for a site in the north Devon countryside.
The scheme is attracting considerable opposition from residents, who are concerned about noise, water supplies, power usage and the impact on the landscape.
Xlinks, the company behind a stalled bid to bring renewable energy to the UK from Morocco through cables under the sea, wants to build the data campus near Great Torrington.
The firm says the artificial intelligence campus would be made up of giant warehouses filled with powerful computers used to run digital services. According to Xlinks, the facility would create between 650 and 1,200 new jobs and be worth up to £3.6bn to the economy — figures the company has put forward ahead of any formal application.
Size
Xlinks says the data campus would take up just over a third of an 850-acre (3.4 sq km) site between Great Torrington, Weare Giffard and Huntshaw.
News of the plans emerged when the MP for the area, Conservative Sir Geoffrey Cox, announced a public meeting at the town hall in Great Torrington. The meeting was attended by hundreds of people.
One local resident, Helen Lewis, said: “My concerns are around noise, light pollution, destruction of our beautiful countryside and wildlife.” She added that she was worried about any increased risk of fire and the amount of water and electricity the site would use. Many existing data centres need large quantities of water to prevent them from overheating.
The data campus would take up just over a third of an 850-acre (3.4 sq km)
Applications for the Data Center
Xlinks has said there would be two separate planning applications for the data centre and the battery storage site, but neither has yet been submitted.
Torridge District Council confirmed the position when contacted by Construction Review Online. “We do not currently have a planning application submitted for this proposal,” a spokesperson for the council’s Planning Support team said, adding that as no application had been received, the authority was “unable to comment on any matters” relating to the scheme at this stage.
James Humfrey, CEO at Xlinks, said: “We know a project of this scale will raise questions and we’d expect nothing less from a community that cares about where they live.”
A series of public information days is due to be held on 14 July in Weare Giffard, 15 July in Great Torrington, 16 July in Huntshaw and 17 July in Bideford.
Humfrey added: “They’re an open invitation for people to see the proposals in detail, talk directly to the team and tell us what matters most to them. That feedback genuinely shapes how we take the Devon data campus forward, and we’d encourage anyone with questions or concerns to come along.”
Devon County Data Center Project Factsheet
All project figures below are pre-application estimates provided by the developer, Xlinks, and are not yet supported by any submitted planning application.
Developer: Xlinks First Ltd
Project Name: Devon Data Campus (also referred to by the developer as the Valeon Data Centre and BESS)
Location: North Devon, England — an 850-acre site between Great Torrington, Weare Giffard and Huntshaw, with a proposed grid connection at the existing Alverdiscott substation
Project Nature: A co-located, large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) data centre campus alongside an independent battery energy storage system (BESS)
Planning Status: No planning application has yet been submitted. Torridge District Council, the local planning authority, confirmed on 30 June 2026 that it had not received any application. Xlinks intends to lodge two separate applications — for the data centre and the battery storage site — following public consultation (public information days scheduled for 14–17 July 2026)
Physical Footprint: Just over a third of the 850-acre site (300+ acres)
Indicative Technical Specifications (developer estimates)
– Data centre: reported at up to 1.5 GW of AI compute capacity
– Battery energy storage (BESS): reported at up to 1.8 GW capacity
– Grid interconnection: existing Alverdiscott substation
Economic and Employment Impact (developer estimates)
– Jobs: Xlinks cites between 650 and 1,200 new jobs; larger construction-phase figures of 2,000–3,500 have also been referenced in pre-consultation material
– Economic contribution: stated by Xlinks at up to £3.6 billion
– Capital investment: indicated by the developer in the region of £12–14 billion
*Source: constructionreviewonline.com All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.*
Leave a Reply