• Read more about the data centres campaign, here: aprs.scot/data-centres-campaign
• Sign the petition: actionnetwork.org
ELCAN is calling on the Scottish Government to stop all hyperscale AI data centres until Environmental Impact Assessments are made compulsory, and until robust assessment of the impacts on communities, the grid and climate emissions has been carried out.
There are proposals for 24 data centres across Scotland. This rush of applications is related to the exponential growth of AI and the processing power that it demands.
Hyperscale data centres are categorised as projects over 10,000 square feet (0.25 acres/0.9 hectares), and/or drawing over 100 megawatts of power. Two of these proposals are within East Lothian, at Dunbar and Cockenzie.
Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) says that energy demand from data centres currently in the Scottish planning system is larger than the winter peak electricity demand for the whole of Scotland: between 4450 MW and 4950 MW.
The Dunbar proposal, next to West Barns, sits at 60.2 hectares – or the equivalent of 84 football pitches – will be one of the largest in Scotland. The proposal at Cockenzie is for a 28 hectare site, equating to around 40 football pitches.
Can renewables meet AI energy demand?
Due to the scale of their thirst for energy, the fear is that these data centres would blow net zero targets out of the water and would consume a large proportion of that electricity generated from renewable sources painstakingly constructed to reduce emissions.
To give you an idea of their electricity consumption, the Cato data centre proposed for Auchtertool in Fife also extends to some 60 hectares (and will be over 35 metres in height which is higher than the Kelpies). Running at full capacity, Achtertool data centre would use in a year the same energy as 1.34 million households – or 53% of Scottish households.
The data centre planned for Irvine will have an energy demand of 1GW, this is the equivalent of twice the maximum output of the UK’s largest onshore windfarm at Whitelees, near Glasgow. Whitelees can power up to 350,000 homes with its 215 turbines.
Some hyperscale data centre proposals include backup diesel generators as well. APRS calculated that one of the hyperscale data centers proposed (which was for Edinburgh) proposed to use diesel generators for back-up power, which would be equivalent to over a hundred thousand idling diesel cars.
Data centres must address environmental unknowns
In Cockenzie, there are many concerns around the size and impacts of the data centre. There are a lot of unknowns around the impacts, both social and environmental. The community wants more information and is hoping to be involved in decisions affecting them with a view to understanding potential impacts and benefits to the community of a data centre going ahead – so they don’t feel like they are in the dark whilst a new huge piece of infrastructure gets developed on their doorstep.
The data centre proposed by Dunbar would be built on Grade 2 prime agricultural land. In a climate crisis, which has seen multiple heat waves hit Europe with temperatures regularly reaching into late 30Cs and early 40Cs and wildfires becoming more commonplace, a long term strategy to support local food production for our communities is essential.
12 of the 16 that APRS have found in planning portals are on Green Belt, green field and farmland. Building vast energy-thirsty data centres on prime agricultural land absolutely defies any logic of sustainability.
The current farmland where the Dunbar data centre is planned is home to a host of birds, insects, butterflies, deer and badger. In a biodiversity crisis – which threatens our very existence – we need to make decisions that enhance biodiversity across the board, not obliterate it at scale.
The notion of “green data centres” is a loose term that implies the centre will utilise renewable energy and have other measures around environmental compatibility. Developers and the Scottish Government papers mention green data centres but there is no definition offered of what green data centres mean.
Research by Loughborough University suggests that by 2030 the energy demands of AI will consume the equivalent of all renewable energy production in the world. We need to oppose this huge threat to our steps towards net zero and a liveable planet.
AI is increasingly being used across different sectors and platforms. However, we need to ensure that any data centre development is properly planned and supported by communities and is aligned with Scotland’s environmental and climate commitments.
The current level of proposed data centre development is not compliant with these commitments. AI comes with its own nuanced conversation around its ethics and controls for social good.
So far, the SNP has passed a motion to freeze all new data centres in Scotland. That motion has been sent to the Scottish Government to consider. This freeze could apply to all data centre projects that have not yet received planning permission. Currently, each local authority decides on applications within their areas.
Five asks for Scotland’s data centre buildout
Action to Protect Rural Scotland and Stop Climate Chaos Scotland have asked the following of the First Minister:
We are calling for an immediate moratorium on hyperscale data centres in Scotland while the Government does the following:
- Commission and publish an analysis of the impact of hyperscale data centres on Scotland’s grid and route to net zero.
- Produce a definition of what a green data centre is, and guidance to ensure they place no additional burden on the grid or on our climate objectives, and can operate without fossil fuel backup.
- Add hyperscale and AI data centres to Schedule 1 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations energy requirements and include impacts on the climate in these assessments.
- Declare the energy and water requirements of data centres, and back-up generation, at the pre-planning stage so the environmental impacts of the development are clear from the outset.
If you want to get involved in the conversation on data centres, please email: tess@eastlothianclimatehub.org
