{"id":418910,"date":"2025-12-28T15:06:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T14:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=418910"},"modified":"2025-12-28T19:00:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T18:00:57","slug":"eco-loons-object-to-ai-centres-in-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=418910","title":{"rendered":"Eco Loons Object to AI Centres in\u00a0Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"An<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

h\/t Doug Brodie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scottish greens getting apoplexy!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The Herald:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Headline<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Data centres planned for Scotland would require a \u201cmindblowing\u201d amount of energy that would be sufficient to power several trips in the famous time-travelling DeLorean from the Back To The Future films, campaigners have calculated.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the hit movies, Doc Brown\u2019s fictional time-travelling car required 1.21 gigawatts (GW) of energy to take Marty McFly, played by actor Michael J Fox, back to 1985 \u2013 with this more than the 1.19GW of power produced by the <\/em>Torness<\/em><\/a> nuclear power station in <\/em>East Lothian<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kat Jones, director of the countryside charity Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS), criticised the \u201cridiculous\u201d amount energy needed by the \u201chyperscale\u201d data centres.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

APRS has calculated that data centres in the planning system and going though pre-application processes could require between 4.7 and 5.5 GW of power.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full story here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is the APRS Press Release:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today APRS and ERCS wrote to the Planning Minister Ivan McKee to express concern about the energy demands of data centres coming through Scotland\u2019s planning system. They called for a pause on all planning applications until a more strategic approach can be made and strict environmental standards are defined for data centres. The full press release is below.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For release 12:01am Thursday 18th December 2025<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An environmental charity has revealed that the energy demand from data centres currently in the Scottish planning system is between 4450 MW and 4950 MW, which is larger than the winter peak electricity demand for the whole of Scotland [1]. Information collected by Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) from the planning portals of Scotland\u2019s local authorities found 17 hyperscale data centers at various stages of the planning process [2] and many others at earlier stages. None have yet received a decision on whether or not they have planning permission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This rush of applications is related to the exponential growth of AI and the processing power that it demands. UK Government and Scottish Government  estimates give a figure of 10-30 MW for 2024 data centre capacity in Scotland. [5] Three quarters of the data centre electricity demand comes from planning applications from just one company.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, in a letter to the Scottish Government environmental charities Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) call for an urgent response to the threat these data centres pose to Scotland\u2019s energy security, energy prices and climate targets.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

APRS and ERCS are calling on the Scottish Government to pause all applications to give time to examine the implications for Scotland\u2019s energy grid, energy prices and net zero targets, as well as other impacts on the environment and on local communities.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Data Centres in the Scottish Planning system would double Scotland\u2019s energy demands<\/a><\/blockquote>