RSE chief executive and chair of British Water, Stephen Slessor. is warning that Scotland must act quickly if it is to benefit from data centres whilst addressing community and environmental concerns about water usage.

 Stephen Slessor was speaking ahead of the debate in the Scottish Parliament on Hyperscale AI Data Centres which took place yesterday afternoon.

Slessor believes that, if Scotland does go ahead with building data centres, officials must consider the best place to put them – to limit impact on drinking water availability and to achieve maximum benefit for communities.

Calling for mandatory reporting of water usage, he said that building data centres next to wastewater recycling centres and treatment works would ensure that clean drinking water levels are not impacted, saying:

“Major infrastructure projects are essential for economic growth, but if Scotland goes ahead with building data centres, we need a whole-system approach. We need planning authorities working with utilities, communities and government to locate these investments strategically.

“Negative perceptions of water use is a serious challenge for the data centre industry. At present. there is no mandatory reporting of data centre water usage, or mandatory requirements to minimise it. We need a clear framework for how data centres will operate and limit their impacts on the environment, and stakeholders need to buy into that. This certainty and transparency would benefit communities, developers and those tasked with reviewing applications.

“We don’t want data centres taking out large chunks of clean drinking water when we could build data centres next to treatment works or wastewater recovery systems. Using recyclable or recycled water is far better for the environment and has less impact on local communities.

“A lot of smaller data centres can be water efficient with closed loop systems. But some of the bigger, critical national infrastructure data centres require more thought.”

Debate considered impacts of data centres on energy infrastructure and water resources

The wide-ranging debate saw Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) raise a number of issues and questions about the potential impact of large-scale data centres, including questions about the implications for Scotland’s energy infrastructure and water resources.

The Scottish Parliament scrutinises the work and policies of the Scottish Government and is the law-making body in Scotland for devolved matters.

Large data centre applications set to face more stringent environmental requirements

Over the summer Minister for Public Finance (Hannah Mary Goodlad), who opened the debate, issued a planning direction requiring planning authorities to notify Scottish ministers of new data centre applications with a power capacity beyond 50MW. The Minister also recalled a planning appeal for a ministerial decision relating to a proposed data centre in Edinburgh.

Acknowledging the “legitimate concerns” of MSPs and local communities, she told the MSP that the direction would “ensure that the Government has strategic oversight of the matter.”

The Minister also confirmed that the Scottish Government would issue a new direction that will require an environmental impact assessment to be undertaken for all applications across the board, both new and existing, which will come into effect by today, for new data centres with a power capacity that exceeds 50MW.

The MSP were debating a motion by the Greens seeking a moratorium on planning applications until the planning guidance is developed.

Minister: "highly unlikely that we will see decisions taken before Christmas"

Rejecting the proposal for an outright moratorium on AI data centres, the MSPs voted instead to backing a pause on planning and consent decisions until the Scottish Government have put planning guidance in place.

Responding to a question by David Barratt (Cowdenbeath) (SNP) about the practical difference between the two positions and whether a handful of speculative applications are lodged in the intervening period, Hannah Mary Goodlad said:

“I have been engaging heavily with my planning officials and with local authorities on this matter. It is important to state that, in any business development, in any origination of any industry, a number of speculative applications are always put into the system. It is highly unlikely that we will see decisions taken before Christmas.

“We do not agree that there should be a moratorium. That is not necessary, it is not appropriate, and it would send the wrong message to anyone looking to invest in Scotland. We cannot prevent planning applications from being lodged, nor should we. Applicants have a right to receive a timely decision. Rigorous scrutiny of a proposed development by capable planning professionals, backed up by environmental assessment, is more appropriate than a blanket suspension of all developments regardless of their merits.”

"If approved, the proposed centres would use 7.3GW of power"

Graham Simpson (Central Scotland and Lothians West) (Reform) commented:

“Most members recognise the opportunity for Scotland in attracting AI and hyperscale data centre investment, but the opportunity must come with limits, standards and scrutiny. Communities, councils and investors need certainty about where those developments should and should not go, and how many data centres Scotland needs. Let us be clear: Scotland should not turn its back on data centres, but nor should we allow major developments to proceed unchecked. The scale of what is proposed underlines why national guidance is needed, and quickly.

“Twenty-three hyperscale data centres have been proposed across Scotland, with 21 already in the planning system. Many of those are in the central belt, including Central Scotland and Lothians West. If approved, the proposed centres would use 7.3GW of power, compared with peak winter power demand in Scotland of around 4GW. Data centres already consume around 2.5 per cent of the United Kingdom’s electricity, and demand is projected to rise significantly by 2030.”

Paul Sweeney (Glasgow) (Lab) warned:

“We must face the stark engineering realities. Data centres are major consumers of power and water. To understand the scale of what we are dealing with, running at its full terawatt hours, the proposed Cato data centre would consume nearly 8 per cent of all electricity generated in Scotland in 2024….

"It is obvious to me that the locations for the first wave of new data centre developments in Scotland are staring us in the face:

"our established coastal and thermal power station sites at Hunterston, Torness, Cockenzie, Longannet and Chapelcross. Those locations already possess the industrial profile required: high-voltage grid connections, abundant ambient cooling water along the coastline, flat brownfield industrial land sited well away from residential amenities, and communities with an existing established heritage in the energy industry.”

The Labour party had called for the Scottish Government to report back to Parliament on the development of national planning guidance by the end of the current calendar year and to publish this guidance in full within 12 months, saying it believed that “no decisions on planning or consenting in relation to such applications should be made until this has been completed.”

David Green (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (LD) urged the Government to commission an independent assessment of the projected energy demand from data centres.

Stuart McMillan suggested that demand for the data centres would continue to increase and a strong renewables sector makes Scotland “attractive to the tech giants” that are looking for new places to build hyperscale data centres. However, he cautioned that an increase in their number “could result in increasing energy prices for our constituents.“

Keith Brown (Clackmannanshire and Dunblane) (SNP) said it would be “very difficult” for a planning authority to take a sensible decision without knowing the full implications , if 15 or 20 AI centres were agreed to, saying:

“No single council can determine how much data centre capacity Scotland’s electricity network can sustain or how that demand should be met, or what the collective impact might be on water supplies, land use and the environment and our climate.

“Local people should not be expected to accept unacceptable noise, disruption, pressure on local infrastructure or a loss of amenity as the price of development, and proposals should demonstrate how they will minimise the emissions associated with our energy use and avoid adversely affecting water supplies.”

Scotland experiencing a wave of planning applications for hyperscale data centres

According to Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS), Scotland’s longest established environmental charity, Scotland is experiencing a wave of planning applications for hyperscale data centres which, were they all built, would more than double Scotland’s energy demand.

During the debate, Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green) flagged up that three applications for hyperscale data centres that are “likely to be determined this year, before the Government gets round to revising its guidance”, including the Larbert data centre and a data centre in Greenock.

Measures in the motion, as amended, voted on and agreed to by the MSPs include:

• That the Parliament believes new hyper-scale data centres in Scotland will only be approved where they have met robust environmental impact assessments, which will take account of any impact on the amenity of any neighbouring communities;
• welcomes the Scottish Government's commitment to the swift creation of national planning and spatial guidance by the end of the year for the determination of conditions, under which data centre development should be permitted;
• believes that, in order to gain planning approval, any proposals for data centres should demonstrate how they would minimise emissions for their energy usage and not impact on water usage and how community wealth benefit will be built in to the business case;
• calls on the Scottish Government to bring forward a clear definition of what constitutes a hyperscale data centre and to issue national planning guidance, alongside robust environmental standards
• and assessments, to inform national and local decision-making on current and potential hyperscale data centre planning applications;
• calls on the Scottish Government to report back to Parliament on the development of national planning guidance by the end of the current calendar year and to publish this guidance in full within 12 months, and believes that no decisions on planning or consenting in relation to such applications should be made until this has been completed.