Downing enters data centers with 500MW Nordic pipeline

Downing Renewable Developments, a London-based solar, battery and onshore wind developer, entered the data center market with more than 500MW of advanced projects in central Sweden and southern Finland. The company announced the pipeline on Nov. 5.

Downing said it has secured land and grid connections for the projects, with connections expected before 2030. Permitting on the first sites is due to begin soon, and the first projects are expected to reach "powered land status" — land plus power capacity reserved for a future data center — by the fourth quarter of 2027. Project costs and site sizes were not disclosed.

For allocators, the 500MW is a grid-and-land position inside a renewables developer rather than contracted compute demand. The test is whether permitting and connections land on the stated schedule.

Data centers account for roughly 5% of the firm's 9.4GW development pipeline of solar, battery and onshore wind projects across the UK and Nordics.

"We already have an advanced pipeline of more than 500MW and are progressing our first projects in Sweden and Finland," said Tony Gannon, head of Downing Renewable Developments. He said the firm sees "considerable potential to grow this area of the business" and is looking to work with data center operators and other partners on well-located sites with long-term energy solutions.

Whether Downing will use its renewable assets to power the planned data centers was not disclosed, according to Data Center Dynamics.

Downing has also been arranging capital. Private Infrastructure Daily reported in September that Downing had put together a £500 million facility, equal to a third of the £1.5 billion of private credit it had committed since 2010.

Permitting applications for the first Swedish and Finnish sites are the next checkpoint, ahead of powered land in the fourth quarter of 2027.