Firms from across the region are being encouraged to register their interest in becoming suppliers to a large scale data centre project taking shape in Northumberland.
US data centre specialist QTS - part of global asset management giant Blackstone - is gearing up to build a "data centre campus" scheme on the site of the former coal-fired Blyth Power Station's coalyards near Cambois. The project could see one of the largest ever foreign investments in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ and spans 10 separate buildings and 540,000 sqm of floorspace.
Now, QTS has opened supplier registration for the project with Business Northumberland encouraging regional firms to put themselves forward. Some of those suppliers may include nearby training providers as Northumberland County Council says QTS has committed to targets for apprenticeships and internships.
Around 40 staff will be required for each building on the campus, meaning 400 specialised jobs are expected to come from the project once fully built. QTS has also committed to sourcing staff from within a 25-mile radius of the site, with an estimated 1,200 construction jobs expected to come in the development phase.
For every job directly created by the campus, QTS estimates a further six to seven other jobs are supported in related industries - anticipation of up to 2,700 indirect new jobs.
Having secured outline planning permission for the huge project early last month, the infrastructure giant's own timeline now shows it will submit more detailed reserved matters by late spring. In the summer, Northumberland County Council is expected to determine the plans and if successful, enabling works and early ground-breaking works can begin later this year.
As part of the investment into Cambois, Northumberland County Council has also negotiated a £110m fund which it says will be used to drive long-term investment, including jobs schemes in the economic corridor along the new Northumberland Line which opened in December. It is hoped that fund could spur the creation of up to 5,000 jobs in the county.
The QTS plans emerged following the collapse of electric vehicle battery start-up Britishvolt, which had promised to bring thousands of jobs to the site but failed to secure the investment to get its multibillion-pound ambitions to fruition. In a spring 2024 Blackstone completed the purchase of the site from the council and announced plans to use it for the data centre infrastructure that will underpin the growing artificial intelligence industry. The council also holds a buy-back arrangement in the event the project is not built.
Cambois will be QTS' third European site, alongside datacentre developments in Groningen and Eemshaven in the Netherlands, at 4MW and 20MW respectively. It also has more than 30, either in development or in operation, across the US.
