Oppose AI Data Centres In Edinburgh
AI DATA CENTRE PROPOSAL GOES TO EDINBURGH COUNCIL TOMORROW
This is an email I’ve just written and sent to every Edinburgh City Councillor who tomorrow will make one of the most momentous decisions in the city’s planning history. If you subscribe to Edinburgh Minute you might know about this. This decision will impact all of us for years to come. PLEASE read, share, think about it, and if you can write to each of these councillors listed who will make the decision.
Meet outside Edinburgh City Chambers at 9.30am tomorrow (Wed 4th Feb to oppose this proposal and to get organised.
URGENT: REGARDING PLANNING PERMISSION IN PRINCIPLE FOR A ‘GREEN DATA CENTRE” AT 1 REDHEUGHS AVENUE, EDINBURGH
Dear Councillors Hal Osler, Max Mitchell, Joan Griffiths, Kevin Lang, David Key, Martha Mattos Coelho, Amy McNeese-Mechan, Joanna Mowat, Alys Mumford, Ben Parker and Tim Pogson.
I’m writing with regards to the application for Planning Permission in Principle for a ‘Green Data Centre’ at 1 Redheughs Avenue, Edinburgh, EH12 9RH that has been submitted by Shelborn Drummond Ltd.
This is one of two hyperscale AI Data Centres seeking planning permission for the Edinburgh area – the other at Wester Hermiston near Currie – and one of fourteen publicly declared hyperscale AI Data Centres proposed for Scotland. Most observers believe these are only the beginning as global AI Tech corporations roll out their expansion plans at a breakneck speed.
The above application – which goes before Edinburgh Council’s Development Management Sub-Committee on Wednesday 4th February – will have far reaching repercussions for every citizen of Edinburgh, and indeed Scotland. This may be the most important and consequential decision your committee has ever made.
There was widespread concern, and even disbelief in some quarters, which greeted the decision made by council officials to recommend that Edinburgh Council’s committee grant approval for this proposal without an Environmental Impact Assessment being made in advance.
The proposal that goes before councillors on Wed 4th Feb states “It is recognised that Green Data Centres have potential to use a large amount of energy and water due to their intense operational requirements.” Yet the planning proposal is light on details.
Shelborn Drummond have estimated their data centre’s energy consumption at a constant 212MW. This is colossal energy consumption by any standard, like no other planning proposal that has ever come before Edinburgh Council.
This one data centre intends to use as much electricity as an estimated 700,000 domestic households. To put that into perspective: there are 234,000 households in Edinburgh and 293,000 households in Glasgow. This one proposal will use more electricity than every household in Glasgow and Edinburgh combined.
There is a second application in the pipeline from Apatura to build another similar sized data centre at Wester Hermiston which has publicly been listed as using 200-250MW of electricity. These two applications alone will use more electricity than every domestic household in Scotland.
To put this into perspective: using public documents the amount of electricity needed to power thirteen of the AI data centres going through various consultation and planning processes see is estimated to be around 4,362 MW. Please digest this figure as it is barely comprehensible: it is the equivalent domestic electricity consumption of around 28 Glasgows or 35 Edinburghs. (* See FOOTNOTE on how I’ve calculated this amount from publicly available sources).
This is only the beginning. It is important to understand that these AI Data Centres do not co-operate with each other. AI tech corporations have chosen to roll out their own AI Data Centres globally at maximum speed in a global race for supremacy. They won’t stop at thirteen AI Data Centres in Scotland. These tech giants corporations have their eyes on Scotland’s renewable energy supplies and will build as many as they can get away with, irrespective of what it costs environmentally.
Scotland’s electricity generation and supply has never faced such vast demands at any time in its history. Concerned citizens have every right to ask valid questions about why Scotland’s green energy production is about to be diverted from the national grid to U.S. tech corporations’ AI data centres. What will be the environmental consequences?
Then there is the question of how the data chips used in these data centres are to be cooled, such is the heat they generate. From Santiago to Mumbai, and even in US states, horror stories are emerging of fresh water supplies being diverted from local drinking water to AI data centres with disastrous consequences. The proposal coming before the Edinburgh Council sub-committee claims that a closed loop system will be in place, meaning that it won’t need a constant supply of fresh water. Yet the details are, again, thin on the ground.
Shelborn Drummond and Apatura are not being entirely transparent with their proposals. For instance, neither has named name the hyperscale tech corporation they are partnering up with in Edinburgh. Have they struck partnership deals with Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, Apple, xAI or Nvidia? Since it is highly unlikely they are partnering with global tech companies outside these so-called Mag7 corporations why are they being so coy? What have they got to hide from Edinburgh citizens? Could it be because some of these giant tech corporations have such poor environmental track records with regards to AI data centres they don’t want their involvement revealed until after planning permission is approved?
There are so many unanswered questions regarding AI data centres and their environmental impact I would like to implore you as a councillor – making a major decision that will affect Edinburgh and its citizens for decades to come – to reject this application, and furthermore insist that an Environmental Impact Assessment is made mandatory for all future AI Data Centre applications.
Yours sincerely
Kevin Williamson
FOOTNOTE
From public sources I’ve collated the anticipated electricity consumption by 13 known AI Data Centres proposals in various stages of planning:
1. 1 Redheughs Avenue, Edinburgh (Shelborn Drummond Ltd) 212 MW (Listed)
2. Wester Hermiston, Edinburgh (Apatura) 250 MW (Listed with variations)
3. Ravenscraig, North Lanarkshire (Apatura) 550 MW (Listed)
4. Freeport Shopping Village, West Lothian (Apatura) 250 MW (Listed)
5. Ochiltree, East Ayrshire (Apatura) 200 MW (Listed)
6. ‘The Laundry Field’ Coldstream, Scottish Borders (Apatura) 300 MW (Listed)
7. Wester Hill, Bishopbriggs (Apatura) 300 MW (Listed)
8. Glenbervie Business Park, Larbert (Apatura) 300 MW (Listed)
9. Haspielaw Farm, South Lanarkshire (Apatura) 250 MW (Estimated by Foxglove)
10. ‘Aurelius’ North Lanarkshire (ILI Group) 250 MW (Estimated by Foxglove)
11. ‘Rufus’ East Ayrshire (ILI Group) 250 MW (Estimated by Foxglove)
12. ‘Cato’ Glenistoun, Fife (ILI Group) 250 MW (Estimated by Foxglove)
13. Irvine, Ayrshire 1,000 MW (from Scottish Govt Briefing plans)
Total electricity consumption by these estimated at 4,362 MW
Does not include:
Killellan AG Growth Zone (Samba Nova & Argyll) 100-600MW
(Proposal is for sovereign Data Centre which claims all energy used by the massive 184 acre site will be generated on-site)
Just back from the Edinburgh City Council Meeting and pleased to report that the application for permission to build a so-called Green Data Centre was rejected unanimously by the Councillors. It is a wonderful small victory with huge significance.
The applicants will be no doubt be back, as will Apatura with their plans for a ‘Green Data Centre’ at Wester Hermiston near Currie. We need to be better informed and better organised next time round.
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Scotland is being treated like a blank canvas by predators everywhere, with the enthusiastic collaboration of its elected politicians. Thanks for your concern.
Didn’t Labour bring in an act around 2005 which privatised business water in Scotland? Does that have relevance here?
When our lights go out; theirs will not. it’s part of the deal. When our taps run dry; theirs will not. And don’t think it is about jobs. Once construction is done; these AI data centres will employ few people and that is mainly in caretaker and security type roles. AI doesn’t need people; but it does need our energy and other resources to benefit its tech oligarch owners. Reject these proposals.
So, so true. Please sign our petition against these so called ‘green’ data centres: https://c.org/WhrGg7PW8f
Yes, oppose these data centres, and the strip mining of Scotland’s resources.
AI data centres, which the scandalous and inept Starmer Labour Party has bet the economy on, are the clearest and most naked form of colonialism in the west of our time…
These AI companies, financed by massive federal and State tax breaks over decades and borrowing against their own inflated stock price in thw markets, have appropriated for themselves almost the entire intellectual and creative wealth of the planet Earth to create these super powerful machines, and now they are coming for our energy and our water…
This is extractive, colonial capitalism at its most brutally obvious and has to be resisted…
Yes, but is this not a way of recovering some of the theft (much of which is via copyright theft)?
It reminds me of a similar email from 1800, which read:
“Dear Sirs,
Surely we must oppose the use of the river Clyde for shipbuilding. This will be of no benefit to the city and will use more iron and steel than the whole of Glasgow and Edinburgh combined, many times over. The owners of the ships will often be based overseas.
Meet at the Tontine Tavern 9.30 AM, January 25th, 1801.
Yours sincerely
The Glasgow Luddite Association”
oh dear, typical Bella Caledonia virtue signalling and anti prosperity. The so called champions of Scottish Independence determined to oppose any progress on account of puritanism. Attacking a proposal that delivers real money and jobs . Nothing says self-reliant nation more than turning away billions of investment . We do not see any such reservations from the Chinese! Luddite hypocrisy at its finest. I note the Edinburgh council have now rejected this initial application. No doubt a little virtue- theatre, before common sense prevails.
Yeah, opposing the glaring convergence between Big Tec, Anglosaxon fascism and unchecked elite power makes us all luddites and even more ridiculous, anti-prosperity…
The figure in KW’s article speak for themselves… and, as a matter of fact, Elon Musk himself said only the other day that the Earth doesn’t have enough energy for AI, hence his decision, in theory, to merge two of his companies, SpaceX and XAI… though it sounds more plausible that he is trying to hide the fact that, as yet, no one knows how to monetize AI… (can AI take a meeting? Can it think laterally, or even think at all? Can it make an executive decision under pressure? No, is the answer)
You are right, unfortunately, that this won’t end here. Countries with less weight in the world system like Chile and Kenya are being ravaged by the enormous needs of AI data centres which the whole American economy is betting on…
It is a new form of colonialism, nothing less and ought to be opposed…
I am interested to keep up with this discussion.
Please sign our petition against these so called ‘green’ data centres: https://c.org/WhrGg7PW8f
On the surface this looks like a very noble letter – but i’m somewhat confused: isn’t this the same Kevin Williamson who has been feeding everyone of “the big 7” ai bots or whatever verbatim slabs of his self aggrandising bio ?
I note that this proposed site is near that of two other corporations Kevin has eagerly shilled for: Diageo and Parabola. Perhaps they don’t wish to have a water hogging ai centre nearby ?
After a four hour meeting councillors rejected the plan. Not a single councillor voted in favour.
Great news Mairianna, it will be interesting to see how this develops now
The Edinburgh Minute reports:
Edinburgh councillors have thrown out plans for a 140MW ‘green’ data centre at South Gyle. There was cross-party agreement in refusing the plan, with concerns about ‘how it affects the climate emergency’ and ‘how emissions could be minimised’.
After an almost-four hour meeting, including a presentation from the applicant, not a single councillor from any political party voted in favour of the scheme.
I’m studying the planning docs.
A number of consultees gave their responses. Scottish Water said they had no objection but this did not mean the development could be serviced and they would not accept any surface water connections to their combined sewer systems. They also said business customers would need a Licensed Provider. SP Energy Networks said they were unable to confirm connection details as their contract was with the National Energy System Operator.
Despite this, the applicants’ Energy and Utilities Strategy glibly proposed connecting the development to existing infrastructure and planners in recommending the proposal be accepted do not seem to have picked up on this dissonance.
Elsewhere in the Design and Access document there is mention of generators on site for times when more power was needed.
Thanks Mairianna, keep digging!
Great to hear the proposal has been rejected but Scotland already has our water and the renewable electricity generated here sent south / … Interconnector cable near me takes power to (mostly) and from North of Ireland, another plan recently approved to go to Wales..
What is stopping data centres being built outside the country with the theft of our resources continued? Does Ireland not already have data centres? If so could our power not already be being used?
Thanks so much for this information. he Westminster Labour government is a few marbles only better than insane. Starmer’s push for $100 billion in AI is the push of a man of the most profound ignorance. It’s a sort of electronic DeLorean stupidity multiplied a thousand fold. I posted a discussion piece in these pages a few months ago on Google and Amazon’s use of fully two thirds of the Moray Firth West wind farm project, depriving something like 800,,000 households of their need for renewable power, a microcosm of the wider nonsense is part of this wider absurdity in this discussion. It seems my comments were prescient enough. All done by corporate wheeling and dealing. The Scottish government should immediately legislate for a moratorium for all such applications until such time all Scottish households could meet all their energy requirements through renewables and that industry was well on the way to decarbonisation also. Only when Scotland is down to zero or near zero emission – I am delighted to hear the burghers of Edinburgh refused this application, I hope it sets a precedent. This is nothing less than an existential crisis for citizen sovereignty, a class and economic warfare against an overweening corporate power and a leadership of profound dishonesty. As is now being revealed in all its awfulness in Westminster and the US. The same pressure needs to be applied to the Scottish government to stop this nonsense in its tracks.