Summary
- The Devon Data Campus proposes a 1.5GW Valeon AI data centre and a separate 1.8GW battery energy storage system.
- Both projects would connect to National Grid at Alverdiscott and to each other through a private underground energy network.
- The scheme tests whether multi-gigawatt AI infrastructure can move through UK local planning at rural scale.
Xlinks is consulting on a proposed Devon Data Campus near Alverdiscott that would combine a 1.5GW AI data centre, known as Valeon, with a separate 1.8GW battery energy storage system.
The scheme is being brought forward through two separate planning applications to Torridge District Council: outline planning for the data centre and full planning for the battery storage system. Public consultation is due to run from 14 July to 11 August 2026.
The consultation website says both projects would connect to National Grid at Alverdiscott substation and to each other through a private energy network using underground cables. Xlinks says the two schemes can be built and operated independently, although they are being presented as one wider campus plan.
A rural site built around power
The location was previously associated with Xlinks’ Morocco-UK power project, which would have landed at Alverdiscott. The new data campus proposal turns that energy corridor into a domestic AI infrastructure plan, placing a very large compute load next to a strategic grid point.
The consultation material refers to spare, reliable capacity at Alverdiscott, nearby wind and solar resources, and North Devon’s mild climate. The battery system is described as transmission-scale storage that can support the data centre and the wider grid.
The scale will draw close scrutiny. A 1.5GW data centre campus would sit far beyond most UK schemes now in planning. Building mass, water strategy, landscape impact, cooling, noise, construction traffic, battery safety, emergency planning, and grid interaction will all need detailed evidence before local authorities can assess the proposal.
AI capacity leaves the usual clusters
The UK planning debate has often centred on London, Slough, Hertfordshire, and Buckinghamshire, where power queues, green belt pressure, and data centre clustering have become politically visible. Devon introduces a different version of the same problem: industrial-scale compute in a rural landscape with a large grid connection nearby.
Rural siting does not make public acceptance easier. Large buildings, substations, battery compounds, private cable routes, and round-the-clock operations can be more striking outside established industrial clusters. The consultation process will need to show how visual screening, biodiversity, noise, water use, traffic, and fire safety are handled.
Xlinks says the campus could create 2,000 to 3,500 construction jobs and 650 to 1,200 permanent roles once built, with up to £3.6bn in annual economic contribution. Those claims will be tested against long-term job quality, local supply-chain participation, skills provision, and the balance between land use and local benefit.
The project may also intensify the national debate over planning routes for major data centre schemes. The UK has designated data centres as critical national infrastructure, and ministers have confirmed that some projects can enter the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects regime. A proposal of this scale sits close to the boundary between local planning and nationally strategic energy-linked infrastructure.
Consultation is only the first stage. The serious evidence will come through grid studies, environmental assessments, water and cooling plans, building-height details, battery safety design, and the final planning documents submitted to Torridge District Council.
