IN July we broke the news that the SNP's National Council was preparing to back a moratorium on AI data centre development.
As Holyrood has been on its summer recess we are yet to see the contents of an expected motion in the chamber, although reports indicate one is being drafted.
The latest update came on August 17 when Public Finance Minister Hannah Mary Goodlad published a new direction for planning authorities which will apply to data centre developments exceeding a power capacity of 50MW.
It mandated that council officials will have to inform ministers within seven days of the application being validated. She also ordered two proposed AI data centres in Fife and Edinburgh to provide Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), with this coming after a second Edinburgh-based site was told to produce one.
While this move has been welcomed by campaigners, they believe more must be done.
There are three facets to their demand: What else happens now, what a moratorium contains, and what needs to change for a future moratorium to be lifted.
In the immediate wake of Goodlad's planning directive, Action to Protect Rural Scotland has urged Holyrood to mandate EIAs for all applications through the application of Scottish Town and Country Planning regulations.
This also means extending the requirement to proposals that have already been told they do not require EIAs at the council's screening phase – such as Ravenscraig and Chapelhall – in order to "ensure a consistent approach".
This, APRS director Kat Jones told The National, would represent positive movement towards planning reform, but a moratorium – a temporary, legally enforced pause on developments for a given timeframe or purpose – is still required "so that the Government can put in place the policies, guidance and strategic framework that is desperately needed."
A growing row over how data centres are defined under Scottish planning frameworks has led to cross-party calls for a review and moratorium.
A principal concern revolves around the use of the term "green data centre" in planning applications. It is a specific category of development within Scottish planning regulations, the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) which holds national importance status, meaning they do not need to justify why there is a "need" for their development when applying for planning permission and therefore may be given favourable weighting in decisions.
However, the Scottish Government currently offers no definition of what it means, or any requirements for a centre to be classed as green, and instead has said this decision sits with local authorities.
The framework was also designed in 2022 and published in early 2023, before the widespread expansion of large-scale AI infrastructure and demand for the technology. Instead, it was primarily intended to support smaller facilities underpinning national cloud computing infrastructure and digital services.
Writing to Goodlad, a coalition of more than 70 organisations, led by Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS) and APRS, demanded the term is given a strict definition to avoid what Jones previously described as "Olympic-level greenwashing" from developers avoiding environmental scrutiny. To do this, a moratorium has been proposed to allow ministers time to draft new legislation before active applications are approved.
The concerns first arose amid a campaign to block the South Gyle proposal for a 212MW site on the former Royal Bank of Scotland Headquarters.
The developer said its green credentials were shown through the use of renewable energy as its primary energy source and the use of various energy efficient technologies. This was despite also reporting the site's expected carbon output at more than 200,000 tonnes – more than 1.5 times Edinburgh Airport's annual emissions – due to the presence of around 200 backup generators.
APRS is calling for the national planning framework to be rewritten to provide a clear definition for "green data centres" while also requiring them to provide an assessment of need in the application.
This was echoed by SCCS's letter, which also called on more environmental information to be included in planning applications for data centres due to the risks associated with factors like air pollution and heat generation.
New planning guidance should "address the current problem of many applications for in-principle permission providing insufficient detail," the letter read.
"Guidance should encourage planning authorities to use their broad power to request further documents, materials or evidence which they consider are required to enable them handle hyperscale data centre applications for permission in principle in a more informed way, and to make the process more rigorous."
SCCS told The National that it is calling for an "immediate moratorium on new hyperscale data centre developments" while the Scottish Government prepares a report into "the impact of hyperscale data centres on Scotland’s power grid and legally binding climate targets".
It also said that before the moratorium is lifted, ministers must "set out planning guidance to stringently define what constitutes a ‘green data centre’ [and] make Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) a mandatory part of the planning process."
Campaigners are also calling on the commissioning of independent analysis on the impact new hyperscale data centres would have on Scotland's land and water resources, as well as potential implications on the cost of electricity for consumers, with SCCS saying the "Scottish Government must guarantee that the costs of supplying electricity to data centres will not fall onto the Scottish public and other industries."
Fraser Sutherland, coalition manager at Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, commented: “Scottish ministers must immediately press pause on new hyperscale data centres until the full impact of these developments can be assessed.
“The schemes have huge power needs to run and we need to know how this extra demand will affect the grid, the environment and our legally binding climate targets. Will households and businesses be landed with higher bills or face blackouts?
“Would connecting up all these new energy-hungry schemes jeopardise progress towards cutting emissions, stall decarbonisation and require bigger reductions in other sectors?
“Will their need for water for cooling risk Scotland’s supplies as climate change sees more frequent droughts?
“There is a great deal of concern in communities where applications have been lodged and among environmental groups.
“Many questions need to be addressed before any of these mega-schemes gets the go-ahead.
“The Scottish Government must not sleepwalk into a situation where these massive data centres are first in the queue for energy and other resources and add new risks to the environment.
“Safeguards must be put in place now to help guide planners and applicants and to protect communities and precious resources.”
The Scottish Government has so far refused to commit to a moratorium, with Goodlad saying: “Data centres [are] a rapidly emerging sector, and planning has an important role to play in considering applications, harnessing economic opportunities, and finding solutions which align with our climate goals.
“We must balance the economic and employment interests in developing data centres with national energy, climate and community wealth building ambitions, which are vital to our future prosperity, as well as the potential impact on local communities.
“It is essential to secure public benefits from this type of development, and I am clear that voices of communities that will be affected will be central to any considerations on data centres.”
