Scotland promises greater scrutiny of hyperscale data center applications

The Scottish government has agreed to tighten up the rules on new hyperscale data centers, but has stopped short of halting their development altogether.

MSPs voted down a motion brought forward by the Scottish Greens to introduce a complete moratorium, but said the government would only approve applications for new data centers with a capacity of over 50MW if they have undergone a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

The new rules come into force today.

"There are considerable benefits for all parties where the need for EIA is identified and planned for at the earliest possible stage, when there is greatest scope to integrate mitigation measures to minimize impacts from the outset in designing green data centers which support sustainable infrastructure growth," said chief planner Fiona Simpson in a letter announcing the decision.

"Embedding the consideration of environmental factors from the outset can also help minimize the risk of delay at later stages and can support a smoother passage of proposals through the planning process."

Meanwhile, until national planning guidance has been formalized – probably early next year – no decisions on planning for data center applications will be made.

The Scottish Greens had been calling for a full moratorium on new data centers, and MSP Patrick Harvie has expressed his disappointment at the decision.

"This debate was a chance for MSPs to reassure local communities and to put the national interest ahead of the interests of big business, but they have done the opposite," he said. "Instead they have chosen to muddy the waters and thrown up more questions than answers."

There are currently dozens of active planning applications for new data centers across the country, with decisions due for at least two by the end of this year. One, in Fife, is expected to be the second largest in the world.

The country's a desirable location, thanks to its leadership in renewable energy and the existence of former industrial sites with access to existing electricity infrastructure.

However, the Greens claimed that if just the first 24 of these active applications are approved, they would consume one-and-a-half times as much electricity as the whole of Scotland currently uses at peak times – between 4.5 GW and 6GW.

Meanwhile, current cooling techniques require large amounts of water, and people living near large data centers report high levels of noise.

But, said public finance minister Hannah Mary Goodlad, "We must balance the economic and employment interests in developing data centres with national energy, climate and community wealth building ambitions, which are vital to our future prosperity, as well as the potential impact on local communities."

The Green Party has similar ambitions to halt data center development across the whole of the UK. However, last week, Prime Minister Andy Burnham ruled out that idea, saying that data centers pulled in other investment and that AI Growth Zones were an important vehicle for economic growth.

Two years ago, the government classified data centers as critical national infrastructure, on the same footing as water, energy, and emergency services systems, and allowing some projects to be fast-tracked.

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