Claims that data centres will raise household energy bills are “misinformation”, MSPs have heard. Holyrood’s Climate Action Committee was also told Scotland has overabundant energy from renewable sources, which are paid billions each year to be turned off.
Cooler climate touted as natural fit
Craig Melson, associate director of technology trade body techUK, said Scotland’s cooler climate could make it a natural home for data centres, which can produce a lot of heat. Planning applications are under way for a number of hyperscale data centres across the country amid the boom in AI.
But concerns have been raised about their energy and water usage, as well as the impact on the environment and local communities. Speaking to MSPs on Thursday, those representing the technology sector said some of the concerns have been overblown.
Dispelling 'myths' around power bills
Mr Melson said: “Some of this misinformation, whether it’s ‘oh they’re going to put our power bills up’ – well it won’t. That has happened elsewhere in, for example, bits of North America, but you need to kind of dispel some of the myths and some of the fears that create this concern. You also need to bring people along, like any other infrastructure development. You wouldn’t want to put an A-road through a town without working with the town and making sure everything’s mitigated, and indeed if that’s a good thing to do or not.”
Mr Melson said it is in the interest of data centre owners to keep water and energy usage low. He said the industry has “struggled” with increasing concern from councils and residents.
Energy costs and capacity concerns
ScotlandIS chief executive Andrew Weir, who also appeared before the committee, said he could not “guarantee” consumers would not face higher energy bills due to data centres, but said: “There are many more factors to energy bills.” MSPs also heard the construction of data centres could help fund renewable projects.
Mr Melson said the UK faced hurdles becoming a world leader in data centres because energy is so expensive. He said a 100 megawatt facility, which could be considered a hyperscale data centre, could cost more than £200 million in energy in the UK, while in Sweden it would be around £60 million and in America £50 million.
Amid fears about the number of hyperscale data centres in the pipeline, Mr Melson said companies are “trying it on” and submitting duplicate applications over fears some will not get the go-ahead. He said this means the number of proposed data centres is “artificially inflated”.
Later in the committee, Dr Alejandro Gallego Schmid, a sustainability expert from the University of Manchester, said the combined nine gigawatts of capacity for data centres currently in the Scottish planning pipeline would consume nine times the electricity of every household in Scotland combined. He said the data centre demand for electricity came at the same time as Scotland was seeking to decarbonise to net zero, which would see industries move to electricity. “We have a cake and we have to see how are we going to divide that cake,” he said.
Professor Wim Vanderbauwhede, of the University of Glasgow, added: “If we don’t install data centres, then we clearly have an excess of renewables for meeting the decarbonisation targets. But actually, we will need most of the renewable energy to decarbonise transport and heating. So that capacity being built will not be largely available for powering data centres unless it goes at the expense of those other purposes.” Professor Vanderbauwhede advised the Scottish Government to cap data centres at 500 megawatts, saying: “Any capacity greater than that would, I think, be highly problematic for many reasons.”
