Concerns raised over ‘100,000 idling cars-worth of diesel’ needed by data centre

Concerns have been raised about back-up generators planned for a proposed data centre in Scotland’s capital – with campaigners saying if these were used they would need as much diesel fuel for an hour as more than 100,000 idling cars.

Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) released its research ahead of an Edinburgh City Council meeting this week to consider planning permission for the centre.

Members of the authority’s development subcommittee will consider the application in principle for a green data centre in Redheughs Avenue in the Gyle area – with council officials recommending it be approved in principle, subject to various conditions.

But APRS director Kat Jones said: “We found that the development would need over 200 back-up generators and, when in operation, they would require 68,040 litres of diesel per hour, the equivalent of 106,312 idling diesel cars.”

The proposed centre is one of 16 hyperscale data centres currently going through the planning process in Scotland.

Dr Jones said: “There is so much information missing from the application documents about the environmental impacts of this development.

“The data centre will draw 210MW (megawatts) from the grid, which would power a quarter of a million homes, so a few low-energy lighting solutions are neither here nor there.

“That’s before we even start talking about the diesel generators.”

While the generators are used to provide back-up power, Dr Jones said: “When you look at what is happening in the US, diesel generators are being used more as the grid becomes under pressure from the demand from data centres due to their astronomical energy demands.

“This site is just upwind of the city centre, close to residential homes, and 220 metres from a nursery. This is not something that should be happening with so little oversight – and without being required to do an environmental impact assessment.”

A report ahead of Wednesday’s council meeting says “data centres help support delivery of ‘digital infrastructure’, a designated national development identified as a fundamentally important utility” in Scotland’s NPF 4 planning framework.

With the data centre proposed for the site of a former Royal Bank of Scotland office building, which has since been demolished, the planning report said it “has regard to the global climate and nature crises through re-use of brownfield land in a sustainable location”.

The report also said “it is not considered that the proposal will have a significant effect on the environment”.

It concluded: “Overall, the material considerations support granting planning permission.”