Data centres to be expanded across UK as concerns mount

According to statistics published by BBC News, the number of data centres in the United Kingdom is expected to rise by almost a fifth. There are currently 477 data centres in the UK, which are massive warehouses that run multimedia applications from film streaming to online banking. Barbour ABI, building consultants, have reviewed planning documents and found that the number is likely to rise by almost 100 per cent as artificial intelligence (AI) increases the need for processing power. The majority of these buildings are set to be constructed in the next five years. However, there are concerns about the amount of electricity and water that the new data centres would consume. Some experts have warned that this could push up consumer prices.

Location and Funding

More than half of the new data centres will be located in London and neighbouring counties. Many are privately funded by tech giants like Google and Microsoft and large investment firms. According to the survey, nine more are planned in Wales, one in Scotland, five in Greater Manchester, and a handful in other regions of the UK. Although the new data centres are scheduled to be completed by 2030, a new one planned by the American private investment and wealth management firm Blackstone Group will open in Blyth, near Newcastle, and is expected to be the largest single project later this year. On the site of the former Blyth Power Station, it would require 10 massive buildings covering 540,000 square metres, the size of several major shopping centres. Construction is expected to begin in 2031 and last for more than three years.

Microsoft is building four new data centres in the United Kingdom at a total cost of £330 million: two in the Leeds area, one near Newport in Wales, and one in Acton, north-west London. Google is also building a data centre in Hertfordshire, which the company claims will use air to cool its servers rather than water.

Energy and Water Concerns

According to some reports, the United Kingdom is now the third-largest country for data centres behind the United States and Germany. The government has made it clear that data centres are vital to the UK's economic growth and are essential to the country's competitive future. However, there are questions about their effects, including the possibility of a knock-on effect on people's electricity bills. While the electricity consumption of the new centres is unknown because this information is not included in the planning applications, US results show that they are much more efficient than older ones.

According to Dr Sasha Luccioni, AI and climate lead at machine learning company Hugging Face, "average people in places like Ohio are seeing their monthly bills rise by $20 (£15) because of data centres." She said the timeframe for the new data centres in the United Kingdom was "aggressive" and that businesses, not consumers, should bear the cost of the extra electricity to power them. According to the National Energy System Operator (NESO), the estimated growth of data centres in Great Britain could "add up to 71 TWh of electricity demand" in the next 25 years, which, according to the operator, redoubles the need for clean energy, such as offshore wind.

Bruce Owen, regional president of Equinix, said that the UK's high energy prices, as well as long planning processes, had prompted some operators to consider building elsewhere. "We're talking five to seven years before I have planning permission or access to electricity in order to build a new data centre here in the United Kingdom," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "You're starting to see some of these AI workloads in other countries, where the United Kingdom has always been a major hub."

Anga Rayner, the UK deputy prime minister, has reversed some local councils' refusal of planning permission for data centres, citing their importance to the country's infrastructure and the government's growth drive.

'Fixated with Sustainability'

Environmental questions regarding these massive buildings are also on the rise. Many existing data centre plants need large amounts of water to prevent them from overheating, and the majority of new owners do not disclose information regarding their water usage. Because there is ample water and electricity to power data centres, the Data Centre Alliance's CEO, Stephen Hone, says, "ensuring that there is enough water and electric power to power data centres isn't something the industry can't solve on its own." However, he maintained that "data centres are tightly embedded with becoming as efficient as possible," including through dry-cooling techniques.

Future solutions have failed to appease some. Residents in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, are protesting the building of a £3.5 billion cloud and AI centre on greenbelt property, with some referring to the area as the "lungs" of their local community. And because of the strain placed on Ireland's national electricity provider, there is now a moratorium on the construction of any new data centres in Dublin. They accounted for one-quarter of the country's electricity demand in 2023.

Water Supply Issues

Anglian Water objected to proposals for a 435-acre data centre site in North Lincolnshire last month. According to the developer, it intends to develop "closed loop" cooling systems that would not place a strain on the water supply. According to the planning documents, 28 of the new data centres are expected to be served by struggling Thames Water, including 14 more in Slough, which has been described as Europe's largest cluster of the buildings. Thames Water was talking to the government earlier this year about the threat of water supply in relation to data centres and how it could be mitigated, according to the BBC.

Water UK, the trade body for all water companies, said it "desperately" needs to provide the centres, but "planning obstacles" must be cleared more quickly. In Lincolnshire, the West Midlands, and south-east England, ten new reservoirs are being built. A spokesperson for the UK government said that data centres are "important" and an AI Energy Council had been formed to ensure supply can meet demand, along with £104 billion in water infrastructure investment.

Additional research by Tommy Lumby Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to get the latest tech news and trends around the world.