{"id":472155,"date":"2026-03-12T21:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/472155\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T21:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:05:10","slug":"lincolnshire-council-approves-ai-datacentre-despite-emissions-warnings-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/472155\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincolnshire council approves AI datacentre despite emissions warnings | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plans for a new datacentre in Lincolnshire<\/a> have been approved, despite warnings it could be a major new source of emissions.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, North Lincolnshire council voted unanimously to approve planning permission for the Elsham Tech Park, a proposed AI datacentre campus near Scunthorpe, next to the Elsham Wolds industrial estate.<\/p>\n

According to the tech justice nonprofit Foxglove, the projected emissions produced will approach those generated by every domestic flight taken in the UK.<\/p>\n

Council documents estimate the proposed datacentre\u2019s \u201cpeak annual scope 2 emissions\u201d, or indirect greenhouse gases from generating electricity, will reach about 1m tonnes of CO2 equivalent<\/a> in 2033-34. All of the UK\u2019s domestic flights total 1.2m tonnes of CO2 equivalent.<\/p>\n

The council concluded that, despite the \u201clarge absolute energy demand\u201d of the development, the impact of emissions was not significant due to the datacentre\u2019s proximity to clean energy sources in the Humber region.<\/p>\n

According to Elsham Tech Park, construction is expected to begin in 2027, with a view to opening some parts of the campus in 2029. It plans to create up to 15 datacentre buildings across the site, generating up to 1GW of computing capacity, making it one of the largest datacentres proposed in the UK.<\/p>\n

Concerns remain about the feasibility of this level of power generation. A separate AI project by the tech firm Nscale was meant to build a datacentre that could provide 50MW of AI capacity \u2013 with a view to upgrading to 90MW. However, a Guardian investigation has found that, nine months before it is due to be completed, it remains a scaffolding yard in Essex<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elsham Tech Park claims the centre will create up to 900 long-term jobs and could attract up to \u00a310bn of private investment, as well as giving priority to local businesses for supply chain opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers attached to this project are eye-watering \u2013 almost hard to get your head around,\u201d said Rob Waltham, the leader of North Lincolnshire council, adding the centre was a \u201conce-in-a-generation investment opportunity\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThis will bring thousands of construction jobs, hundreds of highly skilled, high-paid long-term roles, and the chance to build a new industry right here in Lincolnshire.\u201d<\/p>\n

On its environmental impact, Elsham Tech Park said the plan for the campus involves improving biodiversity, including new planting, bat and bird boxes and wildflower grassland. It added the centre will have a \u201chighly water-efficient design\u201d using closed-loop systems, which will use minimal water to cool its servers.<\/p>\n

Tim Squirrell, the head of strategy at Foxglove, said: \u201cIt is incredibly disappointing to see big tech\u2019s dubious claims of economic growth spurred by AI datacentres be put ahead of the ongoing climate crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Squirrell added North Lincolnshire council \u201cignored their own policy, which states 20% of energy must be generated through on-site renewables\u201d and \u201ccredulously accepted the developer\u2019s incorrect figures, which underestimated the impact of this datacentre on the UK\u2019s carbon budget by a factor of five\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the developer behind the datacentre, Greystoke, said: \u201cElsham Tech Park in north Lincolnshire \u2013 next to the country\u2019s most advanced clean energy cluster \u2013 will see \u00a310bn of private investment, generating thousands of well-paid operational and construction jobs in the region, and supporting local supply chains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another proposed datacentre in north Lincolnshire, Humber Tech Park, was also backed by Greystoke. It was granted planning permission in August 2024, but construction has yet to begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans for a new datacentre in Lincolnshire have been approved, despite warnings it could be a major new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-472155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}