Greens fail to secure moratorium on big data centres – Daily Business

Calls for a moratorium on data centres were dismissed by John Swinney yesterday who insisted the government had introduced guidelines to ensure community interests were being protected.

His comments during First Minister’s Questions came in response to a demand from Greens co-leader Ross Greer as a demonstration took place outside the parliament.

Mr Greer called on the government to impose an immediate halt on ‘hyperscale’ data centres, amid a wave of speculative applications.

If approved, the first 24 of these applications would consume 1.5 times as much energy as the whole of Scotland, say the Greens. A recent report has said that Scotland could be the location for 20% of all the UK’s datacentres.

Mr Greer highlighted a development at Larbert, which is for a 300MW data centre with 200 diesel generators, beside a care home. Another at Auchtertool in Fife is larger than the neighbouring village.

He called for all data centre applications over 50MW to be paused until Scotland has a clear national strategy and robust criteria for deciding which projects should go ahead.

“For months the Scottish Greens and communities across our country have called for the Scottish Government to hit pause on the dozens of applications to build hyperscale data centres in Scotland,” he said.

“As I told the First Minister in June, the first 24 of these applications alone would need 1.5x as much energy as the whole country. That is clearly absurd.

“It looked like the government was beginning to accept that urgent intervention was required. But earlier this week John Swinney published a Programme for Government which not only fails to hit pause on these applications – it is aimed at attracting even more data centres.

“That announcement has devastated communities across the country. The Government’s previous position was in favour of so-called green data centres, but back in June the First Minister could not give a definition of what makes a data centre green.

“This week a new word has been added – responsible green data centres. So, can the First Minister tell Parliament and the hundreds of campaigners rallying outside right now exactly what makes a data centre responsible and green?”

He said the First Minister failed to provide a clear definition of what the government considers to be a ‘responsible green data centre.’

Mr Swinney said: “I understand the concerns raised”, but said guidance was published in the national planning framework. He added: “A robust framework is in place”.

In August, the Government announced that planning authorities would be required to notify ministers of data centre applications within seven days of validation.

The new direction applies to data centre developments exceeding 50 megawatts (MW) power capacity and will support strategic monitoring of the pipeline of such planning applications and of the implications for wider infrastructure.

Public finance minister Hannah Mary Goodlad also recalled a planning appeal for ministerial decision relating to a proposed green data centre in Edinburgh, and issued directions requiring environmental impact assessments at locations in Fife and Edinburgh.

Mr Greer called for the guidance to be published before any applications are considered, saying: “The First Minister says action has been taken over the summer, but requiring councils to simply issue a notice to the Scottish Government that an application has been lodged does not change the fundamentals of this.

“Councils have not been provided with the guidance they require to make consideration of these applications.

“The government promises that the strategy that was announced in the Programme for Government, that it is yet to set out, will include these clear definitions for these data centres.

“Even if that is true, it will come far too late for the communities fighting these totally inappropriate applications right now.

“Even the SNP’s own National Council agrees that a pause is required until the strategy is in place and until that adequate guidance has been given to the councils struggling to deal with these applications.

“The First Minister says the Cabinet will consider this in the Autumn. The Cabinet was asked to consider this over the Summer , because these applications are live now.

“For the First Minister’s strategy to be of any use whatsoever, it needs to be published in full well ahead of the point where councillors will actually make decisions on these applications.

“So, can the First Minister tell Parliament when that strategy will be revealed?”

In his response the First Minister defended the government’s position but did not lay out a time line for the publication of the strategy.

Sandy Begbie, chief executive of Scottish Financial Enteprise, has called on  politicians to cut “through noise and misinformation” around data centres over fears it is impacting Scotland’s attractiveness by outside investors, writes John Glover.

He warned that the discussion around local infrastructure and the polarised nature of the debate created a risk for investment in Scotland.

In an interview, he said: “We need to cut through the noise and the misinformation to actually look at some of the facts and actually look at what the impact would be.

“I think that we’re trying to cut a central line on this, which is to basically say, what we are saying is not that all 24 applications should be approved, nor are we suggesting that every location is the right one.

“We need to be really careful about what message it sends to investors. Not just about data centres, but the compound effect of having, bluntly, decision after decision [he trails off], which could be interpreted as negative for investors.

“It’s not just about data. Investors don’t just look at Scotland and think data centres. They’ll look at the whole investment landscape.

“And if we use words like moratorium, which has been getting thrown around, then investors will take that as the door’s closed. But it’s not just closed to data centres, it will come across as a negative view of Scotland as a location more broadly, and that’s something we need to be really, really cautious about.”