Prosperity or just pressure on UK infrastructure: The data centre debate hots up

In this month’s news round-up, Andy Dunn focuses on the stories from both camps. 

Figures from Barbour ABI on UK data centres in the planning pipeline, featured on the BBC, show the number will rise by almost a fifth in the coming years.Many are privately funded by US tech giants such as Google and Microsoft and major investment firms, says the BBC. More than half of the new data centres would be in London and neighbouring counties.

Data centres do not have an industrial classification in the UK, explains a House of Commons Library report this month, so it is difficult to identify their economic impact.However it highlights analysis from the trade association techUK, that claims data centres have the potential to contribute an additional £44 billion to the UK economy by 2035.

Water, water everywhere, but …

Another Government report states that “current national water resource plans, including those finalised in 2025 by water companies, do not adequately account for the burgeoning demand from infrastructure such as AI data centres. This oversight risks intensifying water stress.”

Then there’s electricity. Over the next 25 years, the UK's National Energy System Operator (NESO) has estimated that the growth of UK-based data centres could add up to 71 TWh of electricity demand (with one TWh being the equivalent of one trillion-watt hours).

The National Drought Group, a UK collaboration between government and industry, has suggested deleting old emails to save water.On 27 Aug, City AM highlighted that nearly 10 billion litres of water a year are supplied to 231 data centres, but added: “That sounds vast, until you realise it’s less than 0.2 per cent of the UK’s total water usage.”Meanwhile, it is reported that several data centre operators in the UK are considering the possibility of linking their facilities to the country’s natural gas pipelines.

For or against, the debate will rage on.