Carbon3.ai to Invest £1bn to Build the UK's First Renewable-Powered Data Centre Network

by Nicole Cappella, Techerati

A newly formed UK firm, Carbon3.ai, has announced a £1 billion ($1.3 billion) project: building a nationwide network of data centres powered entirely by domestic renewable energy. If successful, this could serve as a model for sovereign AI infrastructure for British enterprise, research, and public institutions.

The company plans to repurpose existing industrial and energy‑generation assets across the UK into high‑performance compute hubs. Carbon3.ai says the £1 bn investment reflects the estimated cost to convert 50 MW of secured renewable baseload generation into data‑centre capacity. Carbon3.ai is partnering with HPE, Vast Data, and WWT to develop the "national grid for AI," an idea based on HPE Private Cloud AI.

According to its founders, the project will deliver a fully sustainable "AI mesh" which will be owned, powered, and secured domestically. This will reduce reliance on foreign-controlled cloud infrastructure, while at the same time offering low-carbon compute capacity.

CEO Tom Humphreys noted, "The UK's competitiveness in AI depends on infrastructure that is truly sovereign, sustainable, and resilient."

"It's not enough to invest in data centres," he continued. "We need a national backbone for AI that's owned, powered, and secured right here at home."

Rising Energy Demand Sharpens the Case for Renewable Compute

Globally, data‑centre energy demand is already high and continuing to rise. According to a 2025 technical review, data centres are responsible for about 1.7 % of global electricity consumption. In the UK, data centres consume approximately 2.5 % of national electricity.

Expanding this infrastructure with renewable energy will help to meet increasing demand while addressing sustainability and emissions goals. As the same review notes, data centres could also provide flexibility for power systems, supporting broader transitions toward net-zero energy grids.

One of the announced projects: a modular "AI data centre" next to a landfill‑gas‑powered energy site in Derbyshire. The plan is to draw power from the adjacent facility to create an off-grid, renewable‑powered compute hub.