Plans have been revealed for a 600MW AI data centre campus near Aberdeen, with developers claiming the project could create thousands of jobs in the region.

The 200-acre site near the coastal village of Blackdog, five miles north of Aberdeen, is being developed in partnership between real-estate firm Ashfield Land and data‑centre consultancy TechRE, with the project also aiming to draw in overseas capital.

The plans, first reported by the Press & Journal, hinge on access to the North East’s supply of renewable energy from offshore wind, with the site potentially securing energy from private-wire connections to wind farms off Blackdog as well as from international subsea cables.

According to those behind the initiative, the Blackdog campus could unlock billions in private investment for Aberdeenshire, with a single gigawatt of capacity requiring over £10 billion to develop.

Steven McGarva, MD of Ashfield Land, said that the project “is the kind of generational investment” the region needs, with expectations it could deliver up to 1,000 construction jobs, 2,000 indirect roles, and 100 high-skilled technical jobs in the near future.

Consent has already been secured from Aberdeenshire Council for the first phase of the campus, with developers hopeful that ground could be broken this year, subject to final commercial agreements. 

“After a tough few years for Aberdeen and the wider region, this project would deliver billions of pounds of investment and create scores of high-value jobs, helping to deliver a just transition for the region’s oil and gas workforce,” said McGarva.

“Given that data centres are, by their very nature, power hungry, Blackdog is also inextricably linked to Scotland’s renewable energy rollout. We’ve spent years assembling the land and securing the planning foundations to make this vision viable.”

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Discussions are already taking place between Ashfield Land and Cerulean Winds, which is working to deliver three major floating offshore wind farms in the Central North Sea, over the feasibility of running a link between Blackdog and the initial Aspen wind farm.

With offshore wind projects facing delays in securing grid connections, the developers said the site offers an alternative as a large-scale, local demand centre for renewable power, potentially easing grid constraints and providing a “shot in the arm” for Scotland’s offshore wind pipeline.

“Any offshore wind project of this scale requires stable long-term offtakers to underpin the investment case,” said Laura Jarvie, head of Scotland at Cerulean.

“This is about creating a mutually reinforcing system; clean power enabling digital growth, and digital demand accelerating renewable deployment.”