Two new planning applications have been submitted for hyperscale AI data centres, one in Greenock and one in Chapelhall, Airdrie, and neither is being required to do an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). We are asking people to email their MSPs.
In this article for the Kyle Chronicle Kat explains why some changes to a UK Parliament Act from 1989 could spell really big changes for Scotland’s energy consenting if it is done right.
The press is reporting today that DataVita have submitted plans for their DV4 hyperscale Data Centre which be be a 100-125MW data centre right next to homes in Chapelhall. This is not yet on planning portals
Questions on hyperscale data centres and a debate were on the agenda at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday as protesters rallied to call for a moratorium.
The Programme for Government, published today, lays out actions the Government will take over the next five years with a specific focus over the next year. It said the government were putting in place a strategic approach to green data centres “with clear expectations around environmental sustainability, resource use, community benefit and the economic and strategic value these developments should deliver.”
An application for Planning in Principle has been received for a data centre on a site with current planning permission
The developers of the 600MW Hyperscale data Centre at Auchtertool intend to use energy from a pump storage scheme they are developing in Argyll, which has been labelled extremely damaging by environmentalists, to power their data centre. This story has been brought together by Penny Sinclair of the Auchtertool Action Group
This week the Ferret reported on lobbying by Apatura over a definition of a ‘green data centre’ which is important because it is a term used to determine whether a data centre should be considered a ‘National Priority’ according to Scotland’s planning framework (NPF4). We believe the answer is much simpler and we wrote to the Scottish Government to highlight how we believe the term in NPF4 should be interpreted.
Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, a coalition of over 70 civil society groups and organisations have backed APRS’s campaign for a pause on hyperscale data centres in Scotland and have written a document for the Government to look at what the conditions might be to lift the moratorium