A developer is proposing a data centre near Tilney St Lawrence in Norfolk that could use up to 1GW of power, alongside a solar scheme spanning two sites. The plans cover about 4,695 acres, and the project’s scale means the UK government, not the local council, would make the final planning decision.
Watch Desk analysis
What happened
Evolution Power Limited (EPL) wants to build the Longmarsh Green Energy project on farmland near King’s Lynn, connecting the data centre to the existing Walpole electricity substation. The BBC reports that the proposed solar farms could generate up to 1.3GW. If approved, the developer expects the centres to be operational by 2032.
EPL says the project would create thousands of construction jobs and more than 500 permanent operational roles. Those are the developer’s projections, not jobs already secured. Residents and local representatives have raised concerns about the site’s scale, water use, construction traffic, nearby nature sites and the location of RAF Marham.
Why it matters
This is a major computing-infrastructure proposal with a sizeable local footprint and power demand. Its fortunes will be decided through a national infrastructure process, even as the immediate questions are intensely local: what gets built on farmland, how it is powered, and what residents get in return.
People can respond to the current consultation through the project website until 26 November. EPL is due to submit an application by April 2027; the BBC says a government decision could follow by July 2028.
Our read
The proposed pairing of a data centre and large solar farms makes the energy plan part of the story, not a footnote. But a planned solar capacity is not, by itself, proof that the facility’s power demand will be met by that generation at the times it needs electricity. Residents have a live consultation to use, while the developer’s headline job figures deserve to be tested against the eventual application.
What to watch
- What the formal application says about power supply, water use and the solar farms.
- Whether the consultation leads to changes in the proposal before the planned April 2027 application.
- How the Planning Inspectorate and government assess local impacts alongside the project’s claimed national benefits.
Discussion spark: Should a nationally significant data-centre project be judged mainly on the computing capacity and jobs it promises, or on the land, power and water it would require locally?
Sources and evidence
- How has community reacted to major data centre plan? (17 October 2026, 05:21 UTC)
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