Plans have been put forward for the construction of a new AI data centre just over two miles from a city centre. The proposals have been submitted to Canterbury City Council (CCC) by newly-formed UK AI company Era4, which was previously known as Carbon3.ai at the time the application was lodged.

The company said it was established to “address a critical gap in the country’s digital infrastructure: the need for sovereign, secure, and sustainable AI computing power”. The proposals would see an AI data centre constructed on a former composting facility found at Shelford Farm Estate, off Broad Oak Road, Canterbury.

The site has been chosen in particular due to the presence of the Valencia Energy powerplant, also on the estate. Valencia operates around the UK and specialises in delivering low carbon and renewable energy.

Era4 said it was looking to “enable the UK’s AI transformation by converting our brownfield sites into data centres” which are to be powered by domestic renewable energy. In late 2025, the company announced a £1 billion project to create a “national AI mesh”, the first phase of which would involve the rapid deployment of a network of modular, purpose-built AI factories.

Plans would see an industrial warehouse-style building, with a footprint measuring about 13,000 sq ft, constructed on the concrete yard which is now being used for storage and houses a number of containers and a large storage tank that are set to be removed. The warehouse will be fitted out as a data centre, accompanied by a secure service yard enclosed by a perimeter fence.

The plans add: “The secure yard will be delivered in two phases. Phase 1 will provide a secure compound and double gated vehicular access, with Phase 2 providing future expansion space to create a larger secure compound.”

Regarding the computing equipment, the plans state this would be installed in phases in racks within the building. The proposals continue: “This will be supported by equipment that includes electrical transformer and regulation equipment, chillers and air handling units.”

While this equipment will likely initially be housed within the warehouse itself, it is likely to be moved outside within the secure compound as additional computing power is added. The external equipment would form part of a “closed loop system” where warm liquid will be cycled from the computer racks and cooled, and fed back into the computer racks to manage the thermal environment of the computer chips.

The plans state: “The only emissions, therefore, will be the heat that transfers from the closed loop liquid cooling system, to the chillers and coolers and out to the atmosphere. There are no gases, liquids, vapours or odours emitted, this is simply a process used to remove heat.

 

“The chillers and coolers will only generate a low level of noise, but this is not significant in modern systems and will not be noticeable outside of the landfill site boundary, as the noise emitted will be lower than the existing background noise levels at the boundary of the landfill site.” The proposals have already been reviewed by the Environment Agency, which responded to say it had no objection to the plans so long as certain planning conditions were met.

This included ensuring adequate measures were taken to prevent and remove land contamination, as well as implementing safety measures for the Battery Energy Storage System which can contaminate water in the event of a fire. The proposals are awaiting a decision from CCC.

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