SNP Government urged to give update on green data centres strategy five years after promises

Labour MP Gregor Poynton has written to SNP business minister Tom Arthur asking the Scottish Government to “show how they intend to turn Scotland's enormous potential into reality."

It comes after many of the commitments from the 2021 plan were repeated in the Scottish Government’s AI Strategy which was published earlier this year.

The Scottish Government has only recently committed to publish guidance on the definition of a green data centre.

Mr Poynton said: "Scotland has enormous potential to become a world leader in green data centres. We have the natural advantages, the expertise and the opportunity to attract major investment.

"The SNP Scottish Government appeared to recognise that in 2021 when it published its Green Data Centres Strategy. But five years later, what has been delivered?

"This year’s AI Strategy simply repeats many of the same commitments. Most extraordinary of all, ministers are only now promising to publish guidance on what actually constitutes a 'green' data centre.

"Five years after launching a Green Data Centres Strategy, Scotland still doesn't have published guidance on what a green data centre is.

“That raises obvious questions about how much progress has really been made.

"Scotland needs delivery, not another strategy. Ministers should now publish a full update on every commitment they made in 2021, explain what investment has been secured and what economic benefits have been delivered, and show how they intend to turn Scotland's enormous potential into reality."

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The Green Data Centres Strategy was published by the Scottish Government in March 2021.

AI data centres have been pioneered by big tech giants like Google and Microsoft as a way of handling the vast computational demands of artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

But many others see them as an environmental scourge and an immense drain on natural resources.

The Scottish and UK Governments are generally in favour of the centres because of their boost to economic growth.

But some local authorities are under pressure to block any developments. Edinburgh City Council’s planning committee recently called for a nationwide moratorium on new data centres. Meanwhile, thousands of residents have objected to planned hyperscale centres in Fife and Falkirk.

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The SNP’s national council recently voted in favour of a moratorium on building new centres. This is not binding for the Scottish Government and has only been sent to it for consideration.

There are 23 data centres currently up and running in Scotland.

The largest of them is DataVita’s Fortis centre in the North Ayrshire village of Chapelhall with plans to expand its capacity to 40MW - the equivalent power of that used by around 30,000 homes.

The hyperscale centres which are in the pipeline are much bigger, with some potentially hitting 1,000MW.

Over a dozen sites in Scotland are earmarked for the creation of these new centres, which require a huge amount of water to keep the technology cool.

A 100MW hyperscale centre is capable of consuming around 2.5 billion litres of water annually, the equivalent to the needs of approximately 80,000 people.

Public Finance Minister Hannah Mary Goodlad said: “The Scottish Government acknowledges the significant levels of investment that green data centres can bring to Scotland, however we are clear that the voices of communities must be central to any considerations. In addition, we have a focused, ambitious commitment to deliver an economy that puts community wealth building at the heart of decisions.

“Ministers are giving active consideration as to whether the Scottish Government should provide planning guidance to balance the rapid expansion of hyperscale data centres with national energy and climate goals, which are vital to our future prosperity.”