A modular AI data center is being planned for a landfill site in Derbyshire, UK.

New company Carbon3.ai has submitted proposals for up to five data center modules, each with associated power and cooling equipment, for a piece of land on Erin Road, near the M1 motorway outside the town of Chesterfield.

The site is adjacent to the Erin Powerplant, which recovers energy from the landfill site, and the developer is proposing to power the data center modules using power from the facility in an off-grid arrangement.

According to a planning application, which has been submitted to local authority Chesterfield Borough Council, the data center would be of “strategic regional and national importance.”

Carbon3.ai said: “It will deliver critical sovereign AI computing infrastructure for the UK, addressing the pressing national requirement for secure, sustainable, and accessible high-capacity digital computing resources.”

The capacity of the data center, the cost of the project, and timelines for construction have not been disclosed.

Launched in September, Carbon3.ai is pitching sovereign AI infrastructure for the UK powered by off-grid renewable energy.

At launch, it said it was partnering with HPE, Vast Data, and WWT to develop what it dubbed a “national grid for AI,” aiming to deploy a nationwide mesh of data centers based on HPE Private Cloud AI.

On its website, the firm claims to have 50MW of available capacity, and a pipeline of 4.5GW. It appears to be planning four hyperscale data centers around the UK, as well as a network of 30 “rapid deployment sites.”

Little information about the company and how it is funded is available, though it appears to be a subsidiary of Valencia Energy, which operates the Erin Powerplant and other similar facilities around the country. Two of Carbon3.ai’s co-founders also hold senior roles with Valencia.