Register your interest

Our planning applications

Thank you for your interest in the project. This page is designed to help you navigate our applications, find out how to have your say, connect with us, and discover more about how Superloop will come to life. 

We are excited to share that the first planning applications for Superloop will soon be live on the South Cambridgeshire District Council planning portal. This page will be updated with further details and the relevant planning application reference codes as soon as they are issued.

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We have submitted two applications:

  • A Local Development Order (LDO) covering the installation of the underground heat network infrastructure and above-ground kiosks.
  • A standard Planning Application for the heat recovery data centre building and its associated infrastructure.

The local planning authority will validate both applications, publish all the supporting documents and undertake formal public consultation.

Residents, businesses and organisations will have the opportunity to submit comments before any decisions are made.  The Council’s Planning Committee will ultimately make the decision. 

The Heat Network

You can find more detail on what it takes to construct Melbourn’s heat network here.

The heat network works by circulating water through underground pipes that connect the data centre with homes and buildings. Installing the pipes beneath existing highways is the most practical and least disruptive way of creating the network. 

A Local Development Order (LDO) is a form of permitted development that allows certain types of development to proceed without individual planning applications each time street works are undertaken.

In this case the LDO would provide planning permission for the installation of the underground heat network infrastructure within the defined area on the map. All work is subject to agreed Cambridgeshire County Council conditions being met.

Construction would be carefully planned to minimise disruption wherever possible, and we will not be working across the whole village at once.

Our network will be built in phases, using temporary traffic management used to maintain access and reduce impacts on residents. Road and pavement surfaces will be restored to Highway Authority standards.

Our warm water pipes and 10Gbps fibre-to-the-home will be laid simultaneously in the same trench, avoiding the need to dig twice.

Boreholes are necessary as they help us store heat in the ground for the colder months, and they provide resiliency, ensuring so no one is ever without heat. 

Once operational, the heat network will be regulated by Ofgem who offer consumer protection and enforce regulations around fair pricing and reliability (they also regulate electricity and gas suppliers).

Small utility kiosks are needed at certain locations across the network to house the equipment used to operate and manage the heat network safely and efficiently. Their appearance and locations will be shown as part of the planning information – you’ll have already seen similar used for broadband around the village.

Data Centre

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Indicative layout and design

Our proposed 50m x 30m 8MW data centre building will be on a 4-acre site next to an existing solar farm, down the byway past Norbury’s Building Supplies. The building does not take up all 4 acres, much of the site is given over to landscaping.

It is a single-storey facility, similar in style and size to an agricultural barn, and we will incorporate sensitive screening, and use a low-profile design. The building will be lower than the existing treeline.

The existing treeline and hedgerows near the site will remain, and we will be planting native hedges and trees, as well as creating a pond. This will increase the biodiversity of the site so it will be a better location for wildlife.

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The data centre location has been identified following detailed technical assessments. We needed a site that was:

  • Close to solar power, as we will be running on solar as much as possible
  • Close enough to our proposed heat network
  • Far from homes, so noise and construction traffic aren’t a concern
  • Close to national grid and fast fibre internet connections
  • Near businesses and institutions that will benefit from a local data centre

We will maintain access and any temporary diversions will be agreed with the Highways Authority.

No, Superloop is a closed loop. Once the network is full the same water moves around the system 24/7, giving up its heat to the community and being warmed again once it comes back to the data centre. The network will deliver 80% of the data centre’s cooling needs. As a commercial data centre we are required to maintain back-up cooling systems to allow the data centre to continuously operate in the event of maintenance being required on the heat network. That means we will have cooling units on site. They are designed to minimise water use and they will only be used on the hottest parts of the hottest days (~200 hours per year). These units don’t use a lot of power, which lessens demand on the national grid and they and are quieter than other cooling options. Our projected water usage is around 300 cubic meters of water per year, the same as 2 – 4 homes.

The proposed site forms part of the formal planning application. Before announcing the location publicly, agreements had to be reached with the landowner and the necessary legal arrangements completed before could proceed. 

Given the location of the data centre, it is unlikely to be noticed by many people.  However, potential construction impacts, including noise, will be assessed as part of the planning application. Any required mitigation measures would be secured through the planning process.

A Construction Traffic Management Plan would accompany the development and set out how construction vehicles will access the site while minimising movements on local roads. It is likely we will be upgrading London Road and the byway as part of the proposed development.

Whilst noise levels are contextual to those hearing them, the data centre is small in scale and located behind the Saxon Way industrial estate, approximately 500m from the nearest homes. It will be designed to meet or better the relevant planning and British Standard noise requirements. Noise impacts are also assessed as part of the planning process, with mitigation incorporated where required. 

The site will be powered by local solar and the electricity grid, with back-up diesel generators only being used in the event of a power failure and for routine testing. Testing for the generators will need to take place once a month for around one hour during daytime working hours, not at night or at weekends. Generators and other external machinery will be housed within appropriate acoustic enclosures to reduce noise.

The proposed data centre will have back-up diesel generators – both used in the event of a power failure. The generators are highly unlikely to ever run for long and are housed within acoustic enclosures designed to keep noise within agreed daytime limits. Generator testing will strictly occur once a month, for a single hour or so, during standard daytime working hours (e.g., Tuesday at 11:00 AM) never at night or on weekends.

Operational traffic is expected to be minimal. Independent transport assessments submitted with the planning application explain the anticipated vehicle movements. To give you an idea of the scale of traffic, our plans show just seven car parking spaces, and these will rarely all be full.

Data centres have a constant demand for power, and we have had to apply to the regional grid manager for this. The grid application process is in depth and lengthy and designed to mitigate risks particularly to existing users. UK Power Networks decides the design which we must accept and pay for, and we pay for any local upgrades needed. In short, the area gets sent more power, so we don’t ‘take’ any electricity from the community.

Our applications are separate, but their purpose is not

The operation of the data centre and the installation of the heat network will be dependent on each other as a single Superloop system. Both work best together; we will not be building a data centre without a heat network.

Fence within planting boundary, not on boundary

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Melbourn Energy Superloop and the bigger picture

The UK is currently being shaped by two major trends: digitalisation, which is driving a rapid increase in the amount of data that must be stored and processed, and the shift to renewables, with more of our electricity coming from wind and solar rather than fossil fuels.  

Renewables and low-carbon sources hit a record 63% of the UK’s electricity generation early 2026, with wind providing around 25% to 30%. This record will continue to be broken as more solar and wind projects connect to the national grid. We will be using solar, and our grid electricity will be from renewable and low carbon suppliers.

Superloop stands at the centre of these two big trends, capitalising on both.

Our aim is to meet pressing needs across the UK – the need to meet net zero targets, the need for more computing power, and the need to get the cost of living down. 

Superloop delivers on all counts, driving down the cost of low-carbon heating installations, removing local emissions, cutting bills down to size and creating much needed digital infrastructure.

And all without the negative environmental impact of the vast data centres you might have seen on the news.

How will the heat and fibre network be rolled out?

Construction

We will start with home surveys in the area of the village closest to where the heat network enters the village. The area is shown on this board, but it might expand further if we find high levels of interest.

Heat network construction and fibre installation will be phased, which means we’ll start the work in one area before moving on to the next area of the village. This will limit disruption and allow for the project to be developed smoothly. We will start with home surveys in the area of the village closest to where the heat network enters. The area is shown on this board, but it might expand further if we find high levels of interest.

Which roads are included?

The design of the network layout will continue to be developed over the coming months. This is subject to various technical studies and further resident and council input. We will be building a warm water ‘main’ from which smaller pipes will branch off. Because the network is partly demand-led, we will finalise the street-by-street design once we have a complete picture of resident demand.

Surveys open in this area

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Register today - wherever you are

Register for project news and home surveys – wherever you live in Melbourn. Helping us see future demand enables us to plan the network. Thank you to everyone in the village who has shown an interest, it makes a genuine difference.

We’ll update this planning page with the relevant reference numbers once we have them, giving you a chance to comment on our planning applications. We will also publish planning documents here, so they’re easy for you to find.

If you have any questions at all, please use our contact form.