DataVita submits plans for third Chapelhall data centre

DataVita, a UK data centre and cloud services provider, has submitted a planning application to North Lanarkshire Council for DV4, a proposed data centre at Chapelhall, as the company expands its existing campus. The site forms part of the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, designated by the UK Government in January 2026 as the first AI Growth Zone in Scotland. DataVita has operated at Chapelhall for more than 10 years. It owns and operates DV1, which the company describes as Scotland’s largest purpose-built Tier III-certified data centre, and is constructing DV3 next door. The company also operates a second facility in Glasgow. The application for planning permission in principle is supported by technical assessments covering energy and decarbonisation, noise, air quality, transport, flood risk and drainage, ecology and landscape, heritage, ground conditions, economic impact, and construction environmental management. DataVita also held four public consultation events, compared with the two required, and published exhibition material and a public FAQ online. The company says feedback from the consultation influenced the development design. Changes include reducing the maximum building height from 30m to 26m; moving an operational plant to the south of the building, away from homes; and planting around 1 kilometre of new native hedgerow, at least twice the length being removed. A feasibility study is also under way for a community garden and greenhouse heated using surplus data centre heat. DataVita says the proposal was raised by residents during consultation and would be funded through a community investment fund. Danny Quinn, Managing Director of DataVita, comments, "We have seen a lot of data centre speculation in Scotland recently, and the vast majority of it will never be built. "DataVita has been operating in Scotland for more than 10 years, and we already underpin a lot of the critical services used day in, day out, across Scotland. We built DV1 at Chapelhall, we are building DV3, and we run them ourselves with a Scottish team. DV4 is the next stage of that campus. "Not all data centres are the same, and we are keen to change the public perception. Scotland has an opportunity not only to become a data centre location, but an exporter of intelligence via low-carbon data centres. We don't think of exporting barley when we talk about the success of our whisky industry, and data centres should be no different. "The application is now with the council and open for comment, and I would encourage people to look at the detail." DV4 targets renewable power and low water use DataVita says DV4 has been designed around four criteria recommended by the Scottish Government for green data centres. The facility is planned to operate using 100% renewable electricity backed by certificated Scottish generation, with a target power usage effectiveness (PUE) of below 1.25. Its liquid cooling system will use a sealed, closed loop, with no evaporative cooling. DataVita has set a water usage target of 0.05 litres per kilowatt hour or lower. Heat recovery will also be incorporated from the outset, with DataVita in discussions with the Monklands Replacement Hospital and neighbouring BioCity campus about potential uses for surplus heat. The company has submitted an air quality assessment covering what it describes as deliberately extreme operating scenarios. These include all standby generators across DV1, DV3, and DV4 operating simultaneously, as well as a continuous 72-hour emergency. The DV4 generators will use renewable HVO fuel and advanced emissions controls. The installation will operate under a SEPA permit, which applies the best available techniques standard. The development represents £849.6 million of construction investment over two years, supporting 2,650 construction job years and 120 permanent skilled roles on site. DataVita also plans to provide apprenticeships, with at least 40% of capital contracts expected to be delivered by local suppliers. DV4 is expected to generate more than £30 million in business rates for North Lanarkshire Council over 25 years. DataVita also plans to invest £75 million over 15 years through a DV4 Community Investment Fund, which will be governed by an independent board and used for locally generated and led projects. The Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone is part of the UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy and is expected to bring £8.2 billion of private investment, more than 3,400 jobs, and a community fund of up to £543 million to the region. Scotland’s AI Strategy 2026-2031, published by the Scottish Government in March 2026, includes a commitment to promote Scotland as a centre for green data centres and to maximise the economic potential of the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone. Data centres of this type are recognised as a national development under National Planning Framework 4. The application will be available through North Lanarkshire Council’s planning portal once validated, with members of the public able to make representations as part of the statutory planning process. For more from DataVita, click here.

New ProLabs transceivers extend network reach to 2,400km

ProLabs, a provider of optical connectivity and networking equipment, has introduced two QSFP-DD transceivers designed to extend the reach of coherent optical networks to distances of up to 2,400km. The QSFP-DD 800G ZR LH and QSFP-DD 400G ZR ULH transceivers are designed for carriers, service providers, and large-scale backbone networks requiring ultra-long-haul transmission. The products are intended to extend 400G and 800G network capacity across national and cross-continental infrastructure, while making greater use of existing long-haul fibre networks. “We are delighted to have expanded our range of ultra-long-haul transceivers ahead of Connected Britain,” says Stefan Löhmann, EMEA Sales Director at ProLabs. “Our solutions will enable national operators to deliver new and efficient long-haul services, making it easier to deliver high-bandwidth connectivity between cities, across countries, and over subsea links.” With network operators facing increasing traffic demands, the transceivers are designed to extend the usable reach of existing fibre infrastructure without requiring additional network infrastructure. Transceivers support up to 30 repeater hops While standard 400G products support around six repeater hops, the new transceivers are designed to support coherent optical transmission across up to 30 repeater hops, equating to approximately 2,400km. Stefan continues, "By reducing the need for additional infrastructure while still maintaining long-distance performance, we're helping operators lower both capital and operational expenditure. "Combined with our commitment to interoperability and availability, these new transceivers provide operators with an open, standards-based alternative to proprietary optical networking solutions." The transceivers are compatible with standard QSFP-DD ports, allowing them to be deployed on existing platforms without significant changes to hardware. Both products use modulation techniques and integrated digital signal processing (DSP) to compensate for laser detuning at each repeater and chromatic dispersion over extended distances. The 400G and 800G transceivers will be available for the first time at Connected Britain 2026 on ProLabs Stand D75. For more from ProLabs, click here.

When power is a constraint, cooling is an opportunity

In this article for DCNN, ExxonMobil’s Glen Sharkowicz (Director Strategic Market Development, Immersion Cooling) and Betsy Cossette (Immersion Cooling Market Development Manager) assess how immersion cooling could help data centre operators overcome power constraints, improve thermal efficiency, and extract more compute capacity from existing infrastructure: Immersion cooling offers relief from the growing energy bottleneck AI is accelerating demand for one of the industry’s most constrained resources: power. Across the United States, major players are aggressively pursuing the energy needed for ambitious new projects. If accessing enough power is difficult now, forecasts do not show much relief ahead. The International Energy Agency projects that global data centre electricity consumption will more than double by 2030, reaching roughly 945TWh, with the United States accounting for nearly half of the electricity demand growth over that period. When power becomes a bottleneck, timelines slip, expansion costs rise, and access to compute is constrained. In the AI race, those delays can set companies back years. CBRE has reported that power availability can extend data centre construction timelines by two to four years and, in some cases, by as many as six. The logic is simple: when power is the primary constraint, every megawatt counts. As processor power rises and AI deployments scale, operators are re-evaluating long-held assumptions about how data centres should be cooled. Direct-to-chip moved the market forward; AI is now changing that equation. Modern systems are generating more heat in less space, and thermal pressure now extends beyond CPUs and GPUs to memory, power delivery, and other system elements. Heat affects how much supporting infrastructure must be built around the IT load. It influences how much of a site’s total power can be directed to compute rather than cooling overhead. Direct-to-chip cooling has been an important bridge technology for high-density environments. McKinsey notes that compared with air cooling, operators can run the same tasks on the same equipment with a 31% lower energy bill using direct-to-chip cooling. But, as densities continue to rise, the limitations of cooling only certain hot components become more apparent. For one, liquid cooling systems can introduce significant plumbing complexity. In 2024, Uptime Institute data cited by industry observers showed that liquid cooling system failures contributed to 13% of significant outages. Immersion extends the opportunity Instead of targeting only the hottest chips, immersion cooling places the system in a thermally stable liquid environment designed to cool the full assembly more comprehensively, which itself can reduce temperature variation, lower dependence on fans and heavy air handling, and simplify the environment needed to support high-density compute. With immersion becoming more mainstream, the most likely path forward is a hybrid approach in which cooling strategies are tailored to specific business and application needs. What’s more, immersion cooling can reduce TCO compared with direct-to-chip and air cooling. When AI is driving revenue, the ability to shift energy from cooling to compute can have outsized business impact. A recent survey by KPMG found that 55% of hyperscalers and data centre developers would be willing to pay up to 50% more on electricity costs to expand capacity. When power is the limiting factor in data centre growth, the central question becomes how to get the most compute from the power already available. Immersion cooling is an answer. Immersion cooling can offer meaningful savings relative to cold plate cooling in AI-focused environments. If less power must be devoted to cooling overhead, more can be directed to compute. Power is scarce and time is expensive, so these effects can materially change the return profile of an AI infrastructure investment. Reliability is part of the ROI equation Operators need confidence that the environment will be stable, maintainable, and supportable over time. Downtime, service complexity, and unplanned maintenance can quickly erode the value of any savings. Immersion cooling can help address those concerns by creating a more thermally stable operating environment and reducing some of the infrastructure complexity that contributes to service burden. At the 2025 OCP EMEA Summit, findings presented showed that immersion cooling offered the following advantages: • Higher server reliability• Reduced downtime• Lower maintenance requirements The case extends beyond the rack Water use, physical footprint, and local operating impact of data centres are becoming more prominent considerations in siting, permitting, and long-term planning. Immersion cooling can potentially lower water consumption compared to other cooling strategies, alongside improved thermal management and lower cost. A 2025 Nature study found that advanced cooling methods such as cold plates and immersion cooling can reduce blue water consumption by 31–52% in data centres, depending on conditions. Traditional fan-heavy data centre environments can create significant noise pollution. Immersion cooling can help reduce that burden by lowering reliance on fan-driven airflow. In some configurations, immersion systems have been measured below 50dB, which is materially quieter than conventional data centre cooling environments. Immersion cooling can help maximise power to revenue It’s important to consider how much value a cooling strategy can unlock from the power, space, water, and capital already available. Implementing immersion cooling can help address thermal management at the system level and ties that improvement to core business outcomes: lower operating costs, less infrastructure burden, improved reliability, and the potential for more compute capacity within the same power envelope. Immersion cooling offers a way to turn constrained power into scalable growth, and it belongs in today’s infrastructure planning discussion. For organisations exploring how to maximise performance from constrained power, it is a conversation worth having now. For more from ExxonMobil, click here.

Pulsant invests £1m in Birmingham data centre

UK data centre operator Pulsant is investing £1 million in its Birmingham data centre to support growing demand for AI and advanced computing in the UK’s "second city". The investment will fund infrastructure upgrades at the 2,405m² facility, which Pulsant acquired from IT services provider Specialist Computer Centres (SCC) last year. Located five miles southeast of the Birmingham city centre, the site has been integrated into Pulsant’s UK-wide edge infrastructure platform, which connects 14 regional data centres from Edinburgh to Fareham on the south coast. The facility provides local businesses with access to data centre infrastructure and more than 1,600 technology providers, including international carriers. The investment also includes security upgrades and a refurbishment of the facility for Pulsant staff and regional businesses that maintain their own infrastructure on site. Rob Coupland, CEO of Pulsant, says, “A year on from our acquisition in Birmingham, we’re excited to unveil powerful new capabilities in the UK’s second city - an economic powerhouse which has traditionally been underserved in terms of digital infrastructure. “We’re investing in our data centres to meet the urgent need for ultra low-latency, sovereign compute power across the UK. Our platform is here to support inference AI workloads today, and now we’re all set to scale in Birmingham as demand grows. “Businesses can move, store, and process their data securely close to where they’re based, rather than relying on public internet or routing through [an] increasingly constrained London, while also gaining access to a global ecosystem of tech partners.” Midlands businesses plan technology investment Recent Pulsant research found that the Midlands was the most data-confident region in the UK, with the most ambitious investment plans. More than 60% of Midlands businesses expect to make significant increases in technology investment within two years, compared with a national average of 47%. Russell Brown, CEO of SCC UK, comments, "We've worked closely with Pulsant over the last year and welcome this continued investment in UK digital infrastructure. "As organisations adopt AI and manage increasingly critical workloads, they are placing greater importance on resilience, security, and knowing where their data is stored and processed. "Investments like this help strengthen regional capability, give organisations more choice, and support the long-term growth of businesses across the Midlands and the wider UK." Pulsant worked with European fibre network provider Zayo Europe to connect the Birmingham site to its nationwide platform. Colman Deegan, CEO of Zayo Europe, notes, “Industry leaders constantly focus on compute power, but raw capacity is only half the equation. "Pulsant’s Birmingham upgrade solves the local power and space challenge, but heavy AI workloads will continue to stall if the underlying fibre networks can’t handle the traffic. That’s where this strategic partnership comes in. “By plugging the facility directly into our national backbone, we’re removing the infrastructure guesswork for Midlands businesses. It cuts out the London bottleneck entirely, delivering the seamless, low-latency connection required to run real-world AI applications across the region.” For more from Pulsant, click here.

KROHNE introduces data centre liquid cooling flowmeters

KROHNE, a German manufacturer of process instrumentation and flow measurement technology, is targeting data centre cooling efficiency with its flow measurement technology, including chilled water and liquid-to-chip applications, as operators manage increasing power and rack densities. The company’s electromagnetic and ultrasonic flowmeters measure liquid flow in cooling water loops, secondary circuits, and heat recovery systems. This data can then be used to monitor coolant distribution, manage pump and valve operation, and assess thermal performance. In liquid-to-chip cooling systems, flow measurement can help operators monitor glycol-water and other coolant circuits supplying individual racks and processors. Accurate flow data can also support automated control systems that adjust pump speeds and valve positions according to cooling requirements. Flow measurement supports heat recovery According to KROHNE, one data centre project using hybrid liquid cooling and waste heat recovery deployed approximately 40 KROHNE OPTIFLUX 4100 electromagnetic flowmeters to measure glycol-water flow through cooling circuits ranging from DN100 to DN250. The measurements are used to monitor heat dissipation and system efficiency, as well as support a thermal management system that captures waste heat for use in district heating networks. KROHNE also supplies flowmeters and temperature sensors for heating circuits, heat exchangers, and district heating connections. Measuring heat and cold transfer can help operators assess system performance and monitor the results of efficiency measures. The company cites other applications where flow and temperature measurement has been used to track hot and chilled water between geothermal probes, heat pumps, and concrete core conditioning systems. In one building-scale installation, the monitoring contributed to reduced natural gas consumption. KROHNE says its flowmeters are designed for long-term operation in demanding industrial environments, with applications including chemical processing and wastewater treatment. The technology can be integrated with existing monitoring and control systems used for data centre energy management.

iON+, ACCURE to streamline BESS data access

iON+, the data and asset performance management platform developed by Conrad Energy, has partnered with battery analytics provider ACCURE Battery Intelligence to simplify data access from battery energy storage system (BESS) assets. Under the partnership, iON+ will provide data services to ACCURE customers through a data bridge that extracts and records high-frequency data from BESS systems. The service will transfer data from BESS assets to the ACCURE platform in near real time. It can also return corrected values, including State of Energy (SoE), which can be used to inform dispatch and trading decisions. Corrected battery data supports trading The partnership is intended to reduce the time required to integrate BESS data, allowing iON+ to transfer high-frequency information from customers’ portfolios into ACCURE’s analytics platform. ACCURE says correcting SoE can make additional energy available for trading and reduce penalties associated with overstating available energy. The approach has been used at Gore Street Capital’s 75MW Dogfish BESS in Texas. ACCURE says analysis of operating data indicated an annual benefit of more than $110,000 (£80,655), equivalent to around a 5% increase against average BESS trading revenues in ERCOT. Corrected values went live at the site in July 2026 without additional hardware. ACCURE’s platform monitors battery performance down to cell level, with the company’s engineers working with asset owners and operators to identify issues such as imbalance. Rhys Kirk, Chief Technology Officer at iON+, says, “We are delighted to have formalised this mutually beneficial partnership with ACCURE. We have been working with ACCURE for some time and know from first-hand experience the breadth and quality of their analytics.” Yannick Gindroz, Head of Partnerships at ACCURE, says, “The iON+ team’s experience in extracting and transferring high-granularity data made them an obvious partner for us. In our industry, visibility is everything, and so we are always looking for ways to show our customers more of what their assets are doing.”

EcoDataCenter to establish third data centre in Sweden

Swedish sustainable data centre operator EcoDataCenter has signed an agreement with Smedjebacken Municipality to purchase 52 hectares of land for its third data centre campus in Sweden’s Dalarna region. The agreement follows a letter of intent between the company and municipality that has been in place since 2019. Construction is expected to begin once building and environmental permits are finalised, which is anticipated in early 2027. The campus has an initial planned capacity of 150MW, with potential for further expansion. Once fully developed, it is expected to support 125–150 permanent jobs, alongside several hundred additional roles during construction. As EcoDataCenter’s third site in Dalarna, the development follows its original campus in Falun and a second facility in Borlänge. Smedjebacken campus adds Swedish capacity The company says the new campus will expand its data centre capacity in a region that already hosts several hyperscale operators. Peter Michelson, CEO of EcoDataCenter, comments, "We have our roots in the region, and being able to continue to grow here is very important to us. We've had many productive discussions with Smedjebacken since 2019, and we are now taking the next step in this establishment." Fredrik Rönning, Chair of the Municipal Executive Board at Smedjebacken Municipality, adds, "This is a major step towards breaking ground. An establishment of this scale means a great deal for the local labour market. EcoDataCenter's high ambitions on sustainability were a decisive factor in the municipality's decision." For more from EcoDataCenter, click here.

LINX, JPIX launch London-to-Tokyo network route

Internet exchange operators the London Internet Exchange (LINX) and Japan Internet Xing (JPIX) have launched direct network routes between London and Tokyo, giving European networks access to JPIX’s interconnection platform and local peering opportunities in Japan. The partnership began in 2018, initially allowing networks in Tokyo to access content in London through LINX. Under the new service, LINX members can now connect directly to JPIX Tokyo through the LINX LON1 peering platform. JPIX says it will manage the connection and ordering process through a carrier partner, removing the need for customers to arrange separate local connectivity. Mike Hellers, Product Development Manager at LINX, comments, “It’s great to see this partnership flourish. We have a handful of networks now peering in London from Tokyo with quite high bandwidths. We are pleased to now be able to work with JPIX to provide the reverse route from London to Tokyo.” European networks gain Tokyo peering access The new route is intended to support demand for Japanese digital content from European networks, including content associated with anime, manga, and gaming. An introductory service for LINX members provides 1Gbps connectivity to JPIX for £400 per month, including transport bandwidth between LINX LON1 and JPIX Tokyo. Other bandwidth options up to 5Gbps are also available. Tetsuya Hamada, Senior Executive Expert at JPIX, says, “This new route is a wider project we are working on to increase the awareness of local peering in Japan for networks in Europe.” Tokyo is a major interconnection location, with more than 20 international subsea cable systems connecting Japan with North America, Southeast Asia, and Australia. The service expansion forms part of LINX IX Connect, a programme covering its collaborative work and network routes with other internet exchange points (IXPs), including JPIX, Namex in Rome, and NYIIX in New York. For more from LINX, click here.

FlexSysAI launches platform to manage DC energy demand

Australian energy technology company FlexSysAI has launched a platform designed to make data centre power demand more flexible by shifting GPU-based AI workloads between locations and times without affecting service. The platform connects electricity market and grid conditions with AI workload balancing, allowing compute to be shifted to locations where electricity is cheaper and more abundant. Non-critical workloads can also be reduced when the grid is under strain and electricity prices are high. FlexSysAI says the approach could help data centre operators connect to the grid sooner, reduce electricity costs, access renewable power when it is available, and receive payments for supporting grid operations. The company was founded by energy specialists, technologists, and entrepreneurs including Victor Feoktistov (pictured above), Angelo Perera, and Sean Senvirtne. The team has developed its demand response technology over several years and secured a retail licence providing customers with direct access to energy markets. Australia provides test market for flexible computing FlexSysAI is initially targeting Australia, where the electricity grid, growing data centre demand, and high penetration of renewable generation provide a testing environment for the platform. The company says it is exploring adoption with multiple data centres in Australia. It is backed by EnergyLab and Sean Senvirtne, and is part of NVIDIA’s Inception programme. The launch comes as governments consider approaches to managing increasing data centre electricity demand. The Australian Energy Market Commission recently recommended a national framework that includes operational flexibility as one potential approach to managing demand. FlexSysAI co-founder Victor Feoktistov says, “Data centres need a strategy for the power crunch that is holding back the sector. Physical grid constraints are beginning to bite and time to power is already a major constraint for operators. "These pressures are likely to worsen over the next two to three years, while regulatory pressure is moving even faster as more jurisdictions look to require flexibility from large energy users. “Operators stay in control, see a live price for flexibility, and choose when to shift workloads while connecting to the grid sooner and getting ahead of mandatory requirements that continue to emerge across key markets.” Angelo Perera, Chief Technology Officer at FlexSysAI, adds, “We are starting in Australia’s National Electricity Market as it has one of the world’s most challenging grids, and its structure and volatility strongly reward smarter, more flexible demand. "This makes Australia an ideal market to prove the technology before deploying it globally as we provide a long-term solution to the accelerating electricity demand problem.” FlexSysAI has formally stated it intends to expand into international markets as data centre electricity demand increases.

UK data centre lighting market to reach £130m

The UK data centre lighting market is projected to reach around £130 million by 2030, more than doubling from approximately £54 million in 2024, according to UK commercial lighting manufacturer Whitecroft Lighting. As the UK has become a major location for European data centre development, the company notes there has been an increasing demand for lighting and mechanical and electrical (M&E) infrastructure. Data centre lighting currently represents around 6% of the UK commercial lighting market. Based on the projected 2030 market value, this could rise to around 14%, exceeding the shares attributed to commercial offices and entertainment and leisure lighting (both at 13%) and education lighting (at 11%). Whitecroft estimates that the wider market will grow from £13 billion to £32 billion over the next four years, with the expansion of AI contributing to demand. “The unprecedented growth of the UK data centre market presents both big opportunities and challenges to lighting manufacturers,” says Richard Williams, Head of Strategic Projects at Whitecroft Lighting. “It’s impossible to ignore a growing £32 billion market on your doorstep. To put that in perspective, the entire capital investment budget for NHS estates is around £10 billion this year. “However, data centres present a unique environment, both in their complexity and scale, with developers facing systemic challenges, such as access to the grid and renewable energy, technical resilience, and access to water for cooling all taking precedence over more traditional construction and M&E.” Data centre projects create larger lighting contracts Richard explains that the value of data centre lighting relative to construction costs is lower than in typical commercial buildings. He continues, “As a result, Whitecroft’s Strategic Projects team have calculated that the value of data centre lighting, when compared to the overall cost of construction, is 60% lower than for a typical commercial building. “However, such is the size of the latest multi-billion-pound hyperscale data centres that larger manufacturers, such as Whitecroft Lighting, can offset this by fulfilling big, varied contracts.” Whitecroft says it has increasingly focused on large infrastructure projects where security and resilience are key considerations. In 2022, it secured a contract to design and manufacture LED lighting for Hinkley Point C, supplying 40,000 luminaires. The company also supplied £3 million of lighting for Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 redevelopment, providing 25,000 lights. Whitecroft has since secured contracts to supply lighting for two data centres, one in Portugal and another near Frankfurt, Germany. The company is one of 13 specialist lighting brands within the European Fagerhult Group. Several brands within the group are collaborating on data centre projects across Europe, including Veko Lightsystems in the Netherlands.