Just one hyperscale data centre could have ‘national consequences’, MSPs warned

Giving the go-ahead to just one of the proposed new hyperscale data centres in Scotland could have “national level consequences”, campaigners against them have claimed, telling MSPs the environmental impact could be such that a single development would “blow completely apart” Scotland’s climate targets.

Concerns were raised as Holyrood’s Climate Action Committee took evidence from Friends of the Earth Scotland and Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS).

Kat Jones, the director of APRS, said her group had been unable to secure a meeting with Scottish ministers to express these fears – despite sending eight letters asking for talks.

Public finance minister Hannah Mary Goodlad has already pledged the Government will give councils new guidance for them to use when considering if data centres should be given the go ahead – pledging this work will be done before Christmas.

Amid growing concerns about the energy and water use of such centres, the minister has also insisted environmental impact assessments should be carried out before they can be built.

Kim Pratt, a senior campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, told the committee: “If even one of these data centres is built, they will have national level impacts, particularly around energy and climate.”

She claimed some of the data centres planned for Scotland would “need a whole power station’s worth of power”, saying the proposed Chapelcross development in Annan would “use about nine terawatt hours of power” – highlighting 10 terawatt hours of power could be produced by the existing Peterhead power station “if it was on all day, every day”.

Ms Pratt told the MSPs: “These developments are so big and would use so much energy that they cannot possibly be considered as green.”

Dr Jones added: “They are so big that even one would blow completely apart our climate targets.”

The APRS director insisted there should be “proper analysis” of the impact on the national grid, on communities and the climate.

Speaking about the guidance being development by the Government, she added: “We don’t believe it is something that can be rushed out by Christmas. We actually think this work needs to be done, these questions cannot be answered without the research.”

APRS is “really concerned” about the scale of data centres being proposed, she said, adding that while the smallest proposal in the pipeline is for a 125 megawatt (MW) facility, others are “going all the way up to 1,000MW”.

Dr Jones told MSPs: “These are absolutely immense.”

She said APRS has had two meetings with officials in the Government’s planning department, the most recent of which was on July 31.

Dr Jones told MSPs: “We had a look at how many letters we’ve written to ministers to ask to meet and it is eight, and we have not had a single meeting with a minister.”

Meanwhile, Ms Pratt called for a national consultation on such developments to be carried out.

She told the committee: “There is a lack of detail at the moment around the environmental impact of these data centres and also no real understanding on the cumulative impact of these data centres.

“The Scottish Government should set out clearly the case for why it thinks data centres are needed in Scotland, and that should include what the impacts will be and who will be asked to bear them.

“It also needs to set out how data centres would be included in our climate change plans, our circular economy strategy, and also in terms of our energy approach.

“Once that’s been done, there needs to be a national consultation where people are allowed to have their say in a free and informed way.”

Ms Goodlad said: “As this is an emerging industry, we have the opportunity to get this right from the start. Data centres represent a rapidly emerging sector and planning has an important role to play in considering applications, harnessing economic opportunities and finding solutions which align with our climate goals.

“The Scottish Government will be publishing new planning guidance on data centres before the end of the year. As has already been set out to parliament, no decisions on related planning applications are expected before the new guidance is to be published.

“Planning authorities are also now required to notify ministers of new data centre applications, with a new planning direction also requiring an environmental impact assessment (EIA) to be submitted during planning for all new data centres with a power capacity exceeding 50 megawatts (MW).”