Blackpool ‘energy efficient’ data centre: power, cooling and grid links for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Blackpool Council plans to award Hochtief Data Centre Partner UK Ltd the contract for Silicon Sands, an energy‑efficient data centre and 20,000 sq ft office/R&D hub at Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone, backed by up to £300m of private investment. The scheme has a 6MW initial electrical supply from SP Electricity North West, with a new 32MVA primary substation under construction, on‑site solar planned, and future links to Irish Sea offshore wind and a district heat network using waste heat from cooling. Proximity to the CeltixConnect‑2 subsea cable, carrying roughly one‑third of US‑UK internet traffic with sub‑0.064s latency, positions the site for AI‑intensive and high‑bandwidth workloads.
Technical Brief
- Outline planning consent already secured for the sustainability‑focussed data centre and 20,000 sq ft R&D/office block.
- Blackpool Council and Lancashire Combined County Authority have pre‑funded land assembly, de‑risking site control for the developer.
- Provisional deal structure places all capex, construction and O&M costs on private investors, limiting public balance‑sheet exposure.
- Silicon Sands is designated as phase one of a wider business park build‑out at Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone.
- SP Electricity North West is concurrently constructing a new 32MVA primary substation serving the Enterprise Zone.
- Cooling design is expected to integrate a district heat network to export waste heat to third‑party users.
- Responsible‑supplier requirement explicitly references innovative cooling technology and renewable‑only energy sourcing for data‑hall operation.
Our Take
A 6 MW initial electrical supply at the Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone, backed by a 32 MVA primary substation under construction, signals grid headroom that could support later expansion phases of the Silicon Sands data centre without immediate major reinforcement works.
Within our 914-item Infrastructure corpus, relatively few projects combine a local authority promoter like Blackpool Council with a specialist data centre contractor such as Hochtief Data Centre Partner UK Ltd, suggesting this scheme could become a reference model for UK councils trying to monetise airport and enterprise-zone land with digital infrastructure.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
Related Articles
Related Industries & Products
Construction
Quality control software for construction companies with material testing, batch tracking, and compliance management.
Mining
Geotechnical software solutions for mining operations including CMRR analysis, hydrogeological testing, and data management.
QCDB-io
Comprehensive quality control database for manufacturing, tunnelling, and civil construction with UCS testing, PSD analysis, and grout mix design management.