Britishvolt factory plans scrapped for data centre

Plans to build an electric vehicle battery plant in Northumberland have been scrapped. 

The site in Blyth could now be turned into a computer data centre, says Northumberland County Council. 

Britishvolt had planned to build a £3.8 billion gigafactory on the site, but the company collapsed in January 2023.

There had previously been talks that the Australian startup company Recharge would make use of the site after they bought Britishvolt, but this has also fallen through. 

The Council says it is now considering amending the buy-back option on Northumberland Energy Park (NEP3), which was home to Britishvolt, in exchange for up to £110 million from private equity firm Blackstone.

It will be invested by the firm for cloud and AI data centre company QTS, which is owned by Blackstone, to build the largest data centre in Europe at the site.
 
Council leader Glen Sanderson told the Northumberland Gazette that the project would put the county "at the forefront of developments in the digital economy" and would deliver 1,600 direct jobs.

He added: “Driving growth and jobs is a key priority for this council. Next week, cabinet will consider this really unique opportunity for Northumberland which offers a huge boost to the regeneration and renaissance of the local area."