Data centre operator and cloud provider DataVita has submitted a planning application for a new data centre at Chapelhall in North Lanarkshire.
The DV4 site forms part of the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, designated by the UK government in January 2026 as the first in Scotland. DataVita built, owns and runs the DV1 data centre at Chapelhall and is also constructing DV3 next door.
DV4 will run on 100% renewable electricity backed by certificated Scottish generation and cooling for the facility is closed loop and sealed, with no evaporative cooling, and a water usage target of 0.05 litres per kilowatt hour or lower.
Following feedback gathered from public consultation events, the maximum building height of the centre has been reduced from 30m to 26m, operational plant has been placed to the south of the building away from homes, and around 1,000m of new native hedgerow will be planted, at least double the length being removed.
A feasibility study is also underway for a community garden and greenhouse, warmed by surplus heat from the data centre.
Danny Quinn, managing director of DataVita, said: “We have seen a lot of data centre speculation in Scotland recently, and the vast majority of it will never be built. DataVita has been operating in Scotland for more than 10 years, and we already underpin a lot of the critical services used day in, day out across Scotland. We built DV1 at Chapelhall, we are building DV3 and we run them ourselves with a Scottish team. DV4 is the next stage of that campus.
“Not all data centres are the same, and we are keen to change the public perception. Scotland has an opportunity not only to become a data centre location but an exporter of intelligence via low carbon data centres. We don’t think of exporting barley when we talk about the success of our whisky industry and data centres should be no different. The application is now with the council and open for comment and I would encourage people to look at the detail.”
