Debate surrounding the cost and benefits of hyperscale data centres continues to heat up as Edinburgh councillors reject plans to build a data centre in the capital city. 

City of Edinburgh Council unanimously rejected plans to build a data centre in the South Gyle site which formally hosted Royal Bank of Scotland offices over concerns that the planning application did not adequately address issues surrounding carbon emissions or environmental impact. 

The plans, submitted by Shelborn Drummond Ltd, detailed a 210 megawatt-capable data centre that promised to be “green” and powered with renewable energy, with “modern cooling technology” allowing it to use less energy than typical data centres. 

However, the council did not request an environmental impact assessment, as is typical with most data centre applications. 

This sparked controversy and disappointment from environmental groups, which were not only concerned about the data centre’s impact on the climate, but its ecological impact on the local land.

Action to Protect Rural Scotland, an environmental charity, warned that the diesel-powered backup generators that would be used in the event of a power failure, would have a detrimental impact on Scotland’s net zero goals. 

Overall, the charity said that the site could use the energy of about 100,000 idling diesel powered cars every hour. 

Councillors said that they were not given exact figures on how the data centres would be using energy or mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, with questions lingering on how “green data centres” can actually be defined. 

Recommended reading

• Can AI De‑Risk Breakneck Data Centre Builds?
• How Badly Will AI Data Centres Be Impacted By Power Shortages?
• Are Traditional Data Centres Fit For Purpose?

In the proposal issued to the Council, the City of Edinburgh’s chief planning officer did recommend that the permission be granted as the “merits of the proposal outweigh the infringements.” 

The Council, however, found that the data centre plan did not meet the requirements laid out on the National Planning Framework One and Two, and did not meet the City Plan Place initiative which set out a vision for the Edinburgh Park area. 

While data centres have been listed as critical national infrastructure by the UK government, local authorities are still grappling with how to regulate planning proposals to mitigate environmental and energy impact whilst understanding the importance of data centre investment.