The first HPE “modular” Mod Pod datacentre modules are set for delivery at Carbon3.ai’s off-grid Derbyshire “AI factory”.
The site will eventually comprise five HPE Mod Pods, which are modular datacentre pods capable of delivering 1.5mW of datacentre capability, and will be powered by electricity generated from landfill gas at the site.
The Derbyshire site will go live in the second half of 2026, according to Carbon3.ai chief strategy officer Sana Kharegani.
Carbon3.ai has plans to create a “national grid for AI” based on renewable energy, with access to around 40 sites in the UK. The initiative comes in the context of the UK government’s plans for AI growth zones across the country. The Derbyshire site is the first at which any datacentre equipment will have been deployed by the company.
Carbon3.ai’s datacentre plans are based around a close relationship with Valencia Energy, with which there is some executive-level crossover. Valencia owns and operates around 40 sites in the UK, many of which produce energy from landfill gas, but which also include solar power at some of its brownfield sites.
Planning permission was granted in early November 2025 for the “AI factory” on a former landfill site between Duckmanton and Poolsbrook, near Chesterfield. The site, known as Erin Landfill, is also home to an energy production facility run by Valencia Energy that harnesses gas in the former landfill. The site has been the subject of long-running complaints from local residents about smell and fly infestations.
HPE Mod Pods are shipping container-sized modules that house everything needed for datacentre deployment.
HPE’s AI Mod Pods are its latest generation of the product, which can deliver 1.5mW in modules with hybrid air and water cooling. Carbon.ai’s Mod Pods will run AI systems built around Nvidia B300 architecture.
It is possible to use heated water from the modules, but in the Carbon3.ai case, it will be a closed loop system that minimises water use, said Kharegani, who estimated it would use the equivalent of drinking water for three people for a year.
“We’re capturing heat from the pods as well, and we have designs to be able to do stuff with it for the community, but that has to be worked out right now with the council,” she said.
Kharegani added that Carbon3.ai’s sites will target customers with AI use cases that want data to remain sovereign in the UK, and that it is keen to help with regeneration efforts.
“We are looking at growing AI infrastructure capacity across the UK, and the customers we are looking at are those interested in resilient, high-performance compute, and secure infrastructure that keeps their data in the UK, under UK jurisdiction,” she said.
“We are absolutely interested in the region, because for us, one of the key drivers is regeneration of an area. So, we are looking at these old industrial brownfield sites across the UK, where placing the datacentre at the heart of the community can actually make a difference. We’re thinking of how we build this with the community in mind from the outset.”
The Derbyshire datacentre will provide six full-time and two part-time employed positions, according to the planning application.
