720MW facility granted outline planning permission in March
Quality Technology Services (QTS) has been looking for local businesses to help build its $10bn data center in Northumberland, England.
The facility will be located in the village of Cambois.
According to the Hexham Courant, Blackstone-owned QTS met with more than 30 local businesses, including "electrical and mechanical specialists, operational experts, and tech companies" at an event this week.
The campus, which will offer 720MW of capacity across ten buildings, was unanimously granted outline planning permission by Northumberland County Council in March.
Further approvals by the county council are required before construction can begin, but these are likely to be granted.
The facility will be built on the site of a former coal-fired power plant in Cambois, just outside Blyth in Northumberland. The land had been earmarked for a battery production factory owned by the now-defunct electric vehicle battery firm Britishvolt. However, work on the site halted in 2022, and Britishvolt went into administration a year later.
Most of the UK’s data centers are located in London. Northumberland, which is a ceremonial county that borders Scotland to its north, is not known for its data centers.
QTS was bought by private equity firm Blackstone in 2021. It has data centers across the US and two in the Netherlands.
The company recently saw its founder and CEO, Chad Williams, step down in March.
