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25 min ago 2 min read
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has ruled out a moratorium on data centres development as concerns grow over their energy use and sustainability.
Speaking in parliament today [9 September] he said, “I understand the concerns … but at this point I won’t go as far as a moratorium. But I will agree that it is important that communities see the benefits of AI and data centre investment. Data centres can be the magnet that clusters in other investment over time.”
The UK government is keen to court tech giants as it aims to develop an AI economy.
Google opened a data centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, , as part of a two-year £5bn investment in the UK.
But the rapid growth of AI data centres is triggering major concerns over water supplies, power grids, and local planning rules. Disputes are now rising across the country, from London to Devon, and Newport in Wales to rural Scotland.
The National Energy System Operator has warned that electricity use by digital hubs could quadruple by 2030.
Cooling can consume enormous amounts of water, particularly where facilities rely on evaporative cooling – a technique which involves spraying water onto a heat exchange. This puts data centre expansion into competition with other demands for increasingly constrained water supplies.
The issue is becoming particularly acute in the UK, where trade body Water UK has warned that the country’s water planning does not adequately account for future data centre demand.
Against this backdrop, to cooling and managing the heat generated by data centres.
Gas-fired generation for data centres could expand by around 30 bcm by 2030 and in high-growth scenarios, nearly double by 2035, equal to 60 bcm of incremental supply, according to a .
