Edinburgh City Council is currently considering plans for a new AI data centre on the site of the former RBS headquarters in South Gyle, near Edinburgh Airport.
Shelborn Drummond Ltd, an offshoot of Shelborn Asset Management, is behind the plans for the “Green Data Centre”.
We previously told how the Shelborn data centre, and another proposed by Apatura near to Heriot-Watt University, would demand the equivalent amount of energy as building five cities the same size as the capital within its boundaries.
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The revelation about the vast amount of electricity the sites will consume has sparked concerns from environmental campaigners, and had previously raised concerns that there would be no requirement for the firms behind the plans to carry out an environmental impact assessment (EIA).
A screening opinion published on Friday December 18, by a senior planner at the local authority, ruled that an EIA would not be required.
Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) said the Shelborn data centre will use the same amount of energy as a quarter of a million households, and it was “gobsmacking” that the impact on the local environment would not be taken into consideration.
The council assessment, published on Friday, admitted the data centre “will have effects on the environment through use of natural resources”.
However, senior planner Lewis McWilliam wrote that while it is large it is not “atypical for this type of development”.
AI data centres require a huge amount of energy (Image: Newsquest)
“It will be located in a country with a large availability of renewable energy,” he said.
“The impacts can effectively be reduced through the developments detailed design assessed through the planning application process. No significant environmental effects are likely.”
McWilliam said the nature of the use for storage and office purposes “is compatible with the site’s urban context”.
“There are no impacts identified (visual, sensory, climate) that are anticipated to be unusual in this context or likely to result in a significant effect on the environment,” he wrote.
“Similarly, the developments’ height and size will be large. However, it is of similar height to the previously approved office development on-site.
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“It is in a developed urban context that is not in or in immediate proximity to areas of geographic sensitivity and will not give rise to a significant effect on the environment.
“Whilst no significant environmental effects are anticipated, the planning process will allow opportunity to mitigate and effectively reduce impacts.
“Appropriate mitigation can be secured through planning conditions regarding the developments’ detailed design in relation to waste heat, sustainability, noise, scale, light, flood risk, landscaping and ecology.”
McWilliam added: “It is concluded that an EIA will not be required for this proposal.”
Professor Ana Basiri, director of Glasgow University’s Centre for Data Science and AI, previously told the Sunday National that modelling the energy, water, and carbon footprint of AI is “difficult, mostly due to a lack of transparent and standardised information on data centre environmental costs”.
She has previously made calls to improve companies’ reporting of their environmental impact, including in a report she co-authored for the Royal Academy of Engineering, which called on the UK Government to make this mandatory for companies.
The new data centre will be on the outskirts of Edinburgh
And now, APRS are urging Scottish ministers to intervene following the latest decision.
Kat Jones, director at APRS, said: “This is a gobsmacking decision given what we know about the impacts of hyperscale data centres on energy use and water. This development will use the same energy as a quarter of a million households.
“An EIA is required to look in detail at what the environmental impacts will be and the council is asleep at the wheel if they are not requiring a proper examination of these.
“The Edinburgh data centre at South Gyle is only one of many already in the planning system whose combined energy demand would double Scotland’s energy requirements.
“At the moment councils across central Scotland are looking at applications for hyperscale data centres without any remit to look at the cumulative impact of these decisions.
“We need the Scottish Government to halt all planning decisions until a proper investigation can be made into the environmental and community impacts of these plans.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Ministers to comment on a live or future application for proposed development. It is for the planning authority in the first instance to consider any application.”