UK village revolts against 1.5GW AI datacentre planned in UNESCO biosphere reserve

nordicinst · x · 2026-09-27

UK firm Xlinks plans one of Europe's largest AI data campuses — a 1.5GW datacentre plus an 1.8GW battery storage system (BESS) — on 344 hectares of countryside inside the UNESCO biosphere reserve near Great Torrington, north Devon. Amid the spreading anti-datacentre backlash across the US and Europe, locals protested outside a Torridge council meeting, framing the fight as code vs. countryside and a test of European data ethics against hyperscaler expansion.

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