The world’s second-largest data center has been proposed to be built next to the tiny historic town of Auchertool in Fife, Scotland.
The proposed data center would cover over 170 acres – covering a footprint larger than the town itself – with a 600MW capacity, making it the second largest operational data center upon completion, just a few acres behind Nevada’s Citadel Campus.
The project has attracted over 1,600 objections. “The public pressure is huge,” said David Torrance, Scottish parliament member for Kirkcaldy. “I’ve never seen this level of objection to a local plan, and I have been in politics for 25 years” (via The Guardian).
A moratorium may dawn on Scotland
As the Scottish Parliament is set to resume after the summer break, data centers are likely to be a major topic of conversation within Holyrood. Auchertool isn’t alone in facing down a data center, with Airdrie and Larbert also opposing local developments.
Scotland is prime real estate for data centers as the country produces over one quarter of the UK’s total electricity production. Coupled with low land prices and a naturally cooler climate, it is no surprise that data center developers are being drawn north of the border to meet the capacity required for the UK’s AI strategy.
But a spanner could be thrown in the works if the Scottish parliament decides to pass a moratorium on data centers.
There is already talk of heavily regulating new data center developments. Scotland’s minister for public finance, Hannah Mary Goodlad, has already issued new rules requiring planning authorities to notify the government of any development larger than 50MW. Some data centers will also have to submit an environmental assessment.
Campaigns against data centers are already being planned, with a demonstration in Edinburgh expected to take place in early September once the Scottish parliament has returned.
Does the UK want data centers?
Planned data centers across the UK are facing a increasing backlash from locals. A petition opposing a 32-acre site that would draw 150MW of electricity in Norwich has reached over 12,000 signatures in just two months.
A 4.5 acre site in Wales near the M4 motorway has reached almost 4,500 signatures. A Northern Ireland petition against data centers has surpassed 5,000 signatures.
Across all of these petitions the sentiment is the same. People don’t want their local areas filled with resource-hungry data centers – especially when the proposed benefits are filled with ifs, buts, and maybes.
The UK currently sits in the number three spot for active data centers at around 500 data centers, just a few behind Germany at about 525, and the US at over 3,600. The government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan wants to see this number increased so that the UK can become “an AI superpower.”
But it’s a very hard sell for the UK public. The government promises economic growth, more jobs, and a greater level of foreign investment in the UK economy – but they are forgetting that these promises mean little to everyday people already struggling to afford daily life.
Since 2020, food prices in the UK have risen by almost 40%. In the same period, the average water bill has risen 50%. Since the start of the Iran war, energy prices have risen by as much as 70%. Pay increases in real terms have failed to keep pace with inflation, meaning that the average person in the UK is significantly worse off than they were just six years earlier.
But a mass buildout of data centers across the UK will only worsen this problem. Infrastructural upgrades to energy grids to match data center capacity are paid through increases in household bills, not to mention the enormous increase in energy production required to power new data centers which will put additional strain on energy bills. Water infrastructure will also have to be upgraded to supply data centers with cooling, much of which will be added to the bills of consumers.
The UK water trade body accused the government of failing to account for its AI buildout when forecasting future water needs. The government has designated AI data centers as critical infrastructure, meaning that during droughts or water shortages they will be given priority during heatwaves and hosepipe bans.
Promises of economic prosperity therefore fall on deaf ears. The economy may grow, GDP may go up, but neither of these directly benefit the average working person. If the government wants people on board with its AI growth project, it needs to offer some visceral, tangible return to the UK public.
