UK renewables developer Apatura is planning another large data center campus in Scotland.

Announced this week, the company has filed to develop a data center at the former Ravenscraig Steelworks site in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire.

Apatura aims to develop a 550MW data center campus and battery energy storage system (BESS). The project could see £3.9 billion ($5.34bn) invested, according to the company. The 160-acre site, earmarked on land to the east of the Wishaw Deviation freight railway line and known as SevenFourEight, could come online in 2030.

The grid-connected project will reportedly harness constrained wind and solar generation in Scotland that would otherwise be curtailed during times of excess generation.

Apatura is working closely with North Lanarkshire Council and site owners Ravenscraig Ltd to advance the proposal. A planning application has been filed with the council, but with no documents available at time of writing.

Apatura has put Ravenscraig forward as a candidate in the UK Government’s AI Growth Zone initiative, which is now under consideration by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology.

Apatura CEO Giles Hanglin said the company hoped to confirm Scotland as “a powerhouse of green, AI-enabled digital infrastructure” with benefits at “national and local level.”

He continued: “We’ve secured the land and grid, and we’re already working closely with relevant organizations locally and nationally to make sure the benefits are widely felt.”

Launched around 1954 by Colvilles, Ravenscraig Steelworks closed in 1992. Ravenscraig Ltd, a joint venture between developer Barratt Redrow, Scottish Enterprise, and Tata Steel, owns the land today.

On its website, Ravenscraig Ltd says its 80-acre SevenFourEight development within the former steelworks site can offer up to 1 million sq ft (94,000 sqm) of industrial space.

Russell Wilkie, development director at Ravenscraig, told the BBC: “This is an exciting opportunity for Ravenscraig to be at the forefront of green data centers, which will transform Scotland’s renewable power capabilities.

“With grid connections in place, land secured, and a delivery team aligned, we have a fully viable site within the Ravenscraig masterplan to meet the UK’s AI infrastructure needs.”

Founded in 2014, Apatura describes itself in the application as a leader in energy infrastructure development, with a 10.6GW portfolio of grid-secured energy projects, including 1.8GW of grid connections targeting data center developments. Few details are available about the company’s other data center developments.

On its website, privately owned Apatura said it specializes in the land acquisition, design, planning, and operation of large-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). Michael Hunter, previously on Google’s infrastructure strategy and acquisition team, joined the company at the turn of the year to lead Apatura’s data center efforts.

Scotland’s time for data centers?

The BBC said Ravenscraig is one of five AI-ready sites Apatura is progressing across Scotland’s central belt.

The company recently filed to develop a 200MW data center campus at a former coal site outside Cumnock, in southwest Scotland’s East Ayrshire.

Apatura has other BESS projects planned in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire; East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire; Eaglesham and Neilston, East Renfrewshire; Denny, Falkirk; Devonside, Clackmannanshire; and Port Glasgow, Inverclyde.

Despite having ample renewable power available, Scotland has a minimal data center market.

DataVita recently opened a new data center in Glasgow in its parent company’s office development, having previously expanded its Fortis data center in August 2022. Asanti & Atos, Pulsant, IOmart, CenterServ, and Lumen operate small facilities across the country. In December of 2021, Oracle closed the Sun Microsystems data center in Linlithgow.

The Scottish government has previously run campaigns outlining the country as a potential data center destination, identifying multiple potential development sites that can be made available.

North Lanarkshire is home to facilities operated by DataVita and Scottish Water.

Another development could be coming to the county. Permission for a data center at the former Drumshangie Mine near Airdrie was granted back in 2012, but the project seemingly never came to fruition.

However, updated plans were again filed for the site last year by an affiliate of UK potato-supplier Albert Bartlett, which would see data centers, offices, and microfracturing spaces developed. Some filings reference an energy-from-waste facility alongside a data center.