Hyperscale ‘green’ data centres are “shredding” Scotland’s net zero targets to pieces, campaigners have warned, with the rapid buildout of digital infrastructure threatening to “completely blow” the decarbonisation of the economy for the sake of AI.

Calling on the Scottish Government to take urgent action around enforceable standards for data centre energy and water use, the Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) claims that local authorities are waving through massive infrastructure projects, undermining the country’s net-zero goals.

After investigating planning permission applications, APRS said it had seen proposals routinely screened out of requiring Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), a key part of the planning process that lays out all the environmental impacts of a project before a decision is made.

However, APRS said that, out of 76 battery storage installations it had looked at, only 7 had been required to complete an EIA. That is especially concerning, the charity said, given that these energy storage sites are now often being built within greenbelts.

Major data centre projects are also escaping scrutiny. Last month, developers for a proposed hyperscale facility in Edinburgh, for instance, were initially told by the council that the plans did not require an EIA, despite needing the power equivalent to that used by more than half a million homes.

The campaigners warn that this lack of oversight has led to a ‘developer-led approach’, resulting in power-hungry projects being labelled ‘green’ and approved far from where the grid can handle them.

“At present, data centres are saying they are ‘green’ because they use Scotland’s grid electricity. Under that definition, every household and business in Scotland is green,” said Dr Kat Jones, director of APRS.

“The Scottish Government is promoting Scotland as a location for ‘hyperscale’ data centres, so they need to have a handle on their environmental impacts. We need to see leadership from the Scottish Government. It is not enough to have warm words about “green” data centres, with no definition of what that is.”

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As a result, APRS are calling on the Scottish Government to ensure that data centres and large battery storage installations are named in Schedule 1 of the EIA regulations so they no longer fall through the net, saying that data centres should be subject to strict energy efficiency and water use standards. 

Responding to parliamentary questions from the Green party, the Scottish business minister, Richard Lochhead, said: “Where proposals for new data centres come forward, our Fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) ensures their potential impacts are important considerations in planning decision-making. NPF4 needs to be read and applied as a whole, and all applications are subject to site-specific assessments.

“New data centre buildings must also be designed and constructed in compliance with the relevant building regulations applicable to non-domestic buildings, including standard 6.1, which focuses on the reduction of energy demand arising from the use of heating, hot water, lighting, ventilation and cooling systems in a new building.”

However, with AI demand showing no signs of abating, this could become critical to safeguarding the long-term health of Scotland’s environment, with a recent report from the National Energy System Operator projecting that the country could host up to 20% of the UK’s data centres in the near future.

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