A data centre of up to 1 gigawatt has been proposed alongside a large new solar farm in Norfolk. The Longmarsh Green Energy project would span 4,695 acres across two sites outside King’s Lynn, one south of the A47 near Tilney St Lawrence and the other near Fincham and Barton Bendish.
The solar farm could generate up to 1.3 gigawatts, which would make it the largest facility of its kind in the UK, with battery storage connected to the existing substation at Walpole. The data centre element is thinly specified: developer Evolution Power Limited said it will use a closed loop cooling system to minimise water use, and that the project could be operating by 2032, creating 500 permanent jobs and thousands of construction roles.
At this scale the project counts as nationally significant under UK planning law, so the national government, not local councillors, will decide it. Community consultation runs until November 26, ahead of a formal planning application. North West Norfolk MP James Wild told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the development could represent further large scale industrialisation of the landscape.
Evolution Power is a UK renewable energy developer working on three other solar farms, in Kent and Hertfordshire, with no apparent experience of building data centres. Norfolk has no large data centre market; a separate 150 megawatt facility planned outside Norwich is facing significant local opposition.