72MW Thames Valley Park data centre enters planning with gas-backed power plan

The Thames Valley Park data centre has entered the planning system with a proposed 72MW facility on the Microsoft campus near Reading.

Application 262274 seeks outline permission from Wokingham Borough Council to demolish existing office buildings and replace them with a data centre, on-site fuel cells, ancillary offices, plant, a substation and associated infrastructure. Access is the only matter not reserved.

The planning interest goes well beyond another large technology building. The project proposes natural-gas fuel cells as a bridge while additional grid capacity is brought forward, putting energy availability at the centre of a live application just as national planning policy gives stronger support to data centres and their associated power infrastructure.

72MW Thames Valley Park data centre replaces an underused office campus

The Thames Valley Park data centre application covers 5.4 hectares at the existing business park in Earley, on the eastern edge of Reading. The project website still gives an earlier approximate figure of 5.3 hectares.

The application form proposes 37,000 m² of gross new internal floorspace. The submitted parameter plan allows data halls and generator flues up to approximately 30.5 metres above proposed ground levels, including the rooftop plant zone. The illustrative arrangement shows four three-storey data halls behind an administration building.

Wokingham’s official application record confirms receipt and validation on 28th September 2026. Consultation opened on 1st October 2026 and closes on 29th October 2026. The application is valid and no decision has been issued.

The proposal is for demolition of existing buildings and construction of a data centre in Use Class B8, fuel cells for energy generation, ancillary office space, plant, drainage, backup power generation, a substation, parking, landscaping, engineering works and access alterations.

The submitted documents describe three office buildings associated with Microsoft. Two have been vacated and the remaining building is not fully occupied. The Utilities Statement says Microsoft plans to fully vacate by December 2027.

The development team says falling demand for office space is part of the case for redevelopment. It presents the data centre as a long-term replacement use which would retain the site as part of the Thames Valley technology and business cluster.

The project’s current proposals can be read on the Thames Valley Park Data Centre website.

Grid capacity is shaping the planning strategy

For me, the most revealing part of this application is the power solution and how long the proposed bridge to the grid could last.

The Energy Strategy assesses an initial phase running to 2037, with fuel cells powering the first data halls and an existing 1.8MW grid supply serving the administration building. Earlier reinforcement remains an ambition. The eventual 72MW IT capacity is the server load, rather than the total electricity requirement: the Energy Strategy estimates a completed peak demand of approximately 110MW.

A larger connection for the Thames Valley Park data centre from 2037 is central to the second phase. The applicant prefers a full transition to grid electricity and removal of the fuel cells, but the submission also assesses retaining them alongside a smaller grid connection. That means gas generation cannot yet be described as having a guaranteed end date.

The project team says the Thames Valley Park data centre would use on-site fuel cells while additional electricity grid capacity is brought forward. The fuel cells would initially use natural gas to generate electricity through a chemical reaction rather than conventional combustion.

The team says the equipment would be capable of using lower-carbon fuels such as biomethane or hydrogen if these become available at scale.

A future fuel switch is not guaranteed. The Energy Strategy says current UK biomethane production is insufficient to meet this development’s demand and describes full grid supply as the preferred route.

A high-pressure gas main crosses the site boundary area. The Utilities Statement proposes a new connection and pressure-reducing station, with the layout respecting the pipeline’s exclusion zone. Supply feasibility, safety, resilience and backup diesel generation remain part of the actual planning and delivery case.

The technical reports also need to be read together. The Energy Strategy gives 42.5MW for the initial fuel-cell supply, while the Utilities Statement gives 49.9MW. Those figures need reconciliation before the precise generation capacity is treated as settled.

The approach reflects a wider capacity squeeze. On 29th July 2026, Ofgem reported demand connection applications rising from 41GW to 125GW, driven largely by data centres. Its headline release attributed at least 80GW to data-centre projects, while the detailed consultation referred to around 73GW in the queue.

Ofgem proposed a Data Centre Commitment Fee and specific queue milestones to test whether projects are progressing. Its consultation is now closed and awaiting a decision. The proposed fee should therefore not be treated as already in force.

Planning Geek has also covered proposals for the Great British Grid, including wider attempts to accelerate and reform electricity connections.

The NPPF now speaks directly to data centres

The application also arrives against a much stronger national planning policy backdrop.

In the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework, policy E1 says development plans should make provision, where need exists or is anticipated, for data centres, associated generating capacity and electricity network infrastructure required for grid connections.

Policy E2 gives substantial weight to the economic benefits of commercial development which allows businesses to invest, expand or adapt. It also recognises, when considering unmet need, that infrastructure availability can make locations particularly important, including opportunities to co-locate large electricity generators and users such as data centres.

That does not create automatic permission for the Thames Valley Park data centre. Noise, air quality, carbon, landscape, biodiversity, transport, drainage, neighbouring amenity and infrastructure remain planning considerations.

But it does mean applicants and councils are now working within a national policy framework which explicitly identifies data centres and their power requirements as part of the modern economy.

Our wider summary of the revised 2026 NPPF covers the broader changes.

Submitted employment figures differ from the public website

The project website promotes more than £200 million of construction investment, up to 245 construction jobs and at least 115 full-time equivalent operational roles in Wokingham.

The submitted Economic Benefits Statement is more qualified. It estimates construction expenditure of £165.7 million to £208.4 million over four years, supporting approximately 195 to 245 local full-time equivalent jobs, including wider supply-chain and spending effects.

For operation of the Thames Valley Park data centre, it estimates 40 to 65 gross direct on-site jobs and 50 to 85 net additional jobs across the South East when wider effects are included. The website’s 115-role figure should not be read as 115 permanent jobs inside the data centre.

All of these remain developer estimates. We would use the submitted economic evidence when assessing the claimed planning benefits.

The project website also argues that business rates would support local services and that the data centre could strengthen the area’s technology cluster by adding digital capacity.

For planning purposes, the weight given to those economic benefits will sit alongside the environmental and infrastructure consequences of a 72MW facility.

Cooling reduces water demand but does not remove scrutiny

Water use has become another sensitive issue for data-centre planning.

The submitted Energy Strategy for the Thames Valley Park data centre proposes air-cooled chillers with free-cooling capability, supported by both air and liquid secondary cooling loops. The liquid circuits are closed, with minimal water consumption anticipated after the initial charge.

The developer says this would mean minimal new operational water demand after the initial system is established.

That claim should still be tested through the application evidence. Closed-loop cooling does not make a large data centre impact-free, and the council will need to consider the full water, drainage and resilience position alongside the site’s other infrastructure requirements.

The project team is assessing heat reuse within the business park and through a wider Reading network. It commits to safeguarding plant space and pipework, but delivery depends on infrastructure and commitments outside the applicant’s control. A working heat network is not yet secured.

The drainage assessment places the site in Flood Zone 1, while the environmental material identifies localised surface-water risks. Proposed sustainable drainage, attenuation and controlled discharge therefore remain relevant even with low cooling-water demand.

Biodiversity and environmental effects remain live issues

The submitted Biodiversity Net Gain assessment models two substation layouts. It forecasts on-site area-habitat gains of approximately 22.69% for the 33kV layout and 11.53% for the 132kV layout, with hedgerow gains above 20% in both cases. These are forecasts requiring delivery and management, rather than biodiversity improvements already achieved.

The applicant has submitted a voluntary Environmental Statement without first seeking a formal screening opinion. A non-technical summary sets out its findings. It assesses air quality, noise and vibration, greenhouse gases, climate resilience, water and waste.

That assessment does identify significant adverse effects. Its conclusions include significant local and regional carbon effects from operational energy and climate-resilience risks associated with future heatwaves and drought. Effects against the national carbon budget are assessed as not significant.

The Energy Strategy is equally clear about prolonged gas use, stating: Retaining gas fuel cells locks in a high, non-improving emissions profile. It estimates that removing the fuel cells at the second phase and switching fully to the grid could reduce lifecycle emissions by 75%, under its modelling assumptions.

The submitted air-quality assessment predicts no significant residual effects after mitigation. The noise assessment likewise predicts no significant residual effects, provided operational plant meets the proposed limits. These are the applicant’s assessment findings for Wokingham and consultees to scrutinise.

Data-centre applications often attract attention because of power use, but planning impacts are broader. Large plant areas, generators, electrical equipment, security infrastructure and substantial buildings can generate noise, visual and amenity effects even where the site is already developed.

The submitted Transport Assessment predicts fewer vehicle trips than the historic office use. It proposes 72 car-parking spaces and a travel plan. That comparison matters for access and traffic, but does not resolve the separate questions about electricity demand and emissions.

Those objections do not determine the application. Nor do national statements about the strategic importance of data centres override the need to assess the actual scheme.

An outline application leaves major detail to follow

The Planning Statement confirms the Thames Valley Park data centre application, 262274, is an outline application with all matters reserved except access.

That is important. If outline permission is granted, later reserved matters would still need to settle matters such as appearance, landscaping, layout and scale within the parameters established by the permission.

The submitted Environmental Statement anticipates demolition from April to October 2027, main construction from February 2028 to August 2031, and phased fit-out. Its indicative programme places the larger grid connections in 2037 and second-phase fit-out from July 2037 to April 2039.

Those dates remain a delivery ambition. Permission, reserved matters, discharge of conditions, power arrangements, procurement and construction all have to align.

For a power-intensive development, the electrical strategy is likely to be as important to the critical path as the planning decision itself.

Microsoft campus does not mean Microsoft data centre

The location needs careful wording.

The application form names FH Trustees Limited and FH Trustees 2 Limited as joint trustees of the Mapeley Beta HL Unit Trust. The agent is Nick Finney of Ove Arup & Partners Ltd.

The project team includes BCS Consultancy, Arup, Tyréns Hilson Moran, Twelve Architects & Masterplanners and Alpaca Communications. The submitted ownership certificate is Certificate B, with another owner’s name redacted; it does not justify assuming Microsoft is the site’s sole owner.

Microsoft is associated with the existing office campus. The application record does not establish Microsoft as the future data-centre operator, and we should not describe it that way.

That avoids the common mistake of treating the site’s best-known occupier as automatically being the future data-centre operator.

A useful test of England’s new data centre policy

The Thames Valley Park data centre is worth following because several national planning and infrastructure themes meet on one site.

It is a major commercial redevelopment of an underused office campus. It relies on a power strategy designed around constrained grid capacity. It sits within a policy environment which now gives explicit support to data centres and associated generation. And it must still answer the ordinary development-management questions about environmental impact and local amenity.

The contrast with the 1GW Chapelcross data centre proposal in Scotland is useful. Chapelcross concerns a much larger campus at a former nuclear power-station site under Scotland’s planning and EIA regime. Thames Valley Park is a smaller but still substantial English scheme using a previously developed technology campus and a gas-backed bridge to future grid power.

For consultants, the practical lesson is that energy strategy is no longer an engineering appendix to large data-centre applications. It is part of the planning case, the delivery programme and increasingly the national policy argument.

We will be watching Wokingham’s consultation responses, the application documents and how the council weighs national support for digital infrastructure against the local effects of the scheme.