This week, the Scottish Greens will use our opposition debate in Parliament to force a vote on a simple proposition: Scotland should pause the approval of new hyperscale data centres until we have a proper national strategy and the rules needed to protect our communities, environment and energy system. The scale of what is currently being proposed is extraordinary. If just the first 24 hyperscale data centres currently proposed were approved, they could require around one and a half times as much electricity as Scotland currently uses at peak times.
Think about that for a moment. We are talking about an industry that could place demands on our electricity system on a scale comparable to, or greater than, the needs of our entire country. Yet we still do not have clear national planning guidance telling communities and councils what should be considered an acceptable development. That is why communities from Auchtertool in Fife to the Lammermuirs, Bishopbriggs and Larbert are rightly asking questions.
What will these developments mean for our electricity grid? What will they mean for household energy bills? How much land and water will they consume? What will their impact be on biodiversity, local air quality and Scotland’ climate targets? And perhaps most importantly, who benefits? The Scottish Government has recently introduced a requirement for councils to notify Ministers about data centre applications above 50MW.
That is welcome as far as it goes,
That is welcome as far as it goes, but being told that an application exists is not the same thing as having a strategy for deciding whether it should be approved. The Government has also talked about supporting ‘green’ or ‘responsible green’ data centres. But until very recently, Ministers could not even provide a clear definition of what a green data centre actually means.
That simply isn’t good enough. We need proper environmental impact assessments. We need clear national planning guidance. We need to understand the cumulative impact of these developments on our electricity and water systems. And we need to establish what genuine economic benefitcommunities and Scotland will receive in return. The Scottish Greens have been calling for applications above 50MW to be paused while those rules are developed.
Importantly, this position is no longer confined to the Greens. The SNP’s own National Council has backed a moratorium, and there are SNP MSPs who have publicly expressed support for a pause. So this week’s vote gives every MSP an opportunity to listen to the communities who areasking us to slow down and think carefully. Scotland already has world-leading universities, businesses and research institutions making exciting use of computing and AI.
A pause is not a rejection
A pause is not a rejection of the future. It is an opportunity to get the future right. There is a huge difference between supporting useful technology and allowing a wave of speculative, energy-hungry developments to reshape Scotland’s landscape and energy system without proper national planning. We should welcome investment that creates good jobs, strengthens our economy and supports Scottish communities.
But we should not allow a Big Tech gold rush to take place at the expense of our energy security, environment or democratic planning system. Scotland has the chance to build an AI and digital economy that works for people and planet.
