A HUGE planned £2 billion AI data centre linked to a Scottish aristocrat has been warned that it could affect local water supplies and have a “significant impact” on a protected stretch of the River Tweed, The National can reveal.
Sunlaws Development Company and Roxburghe Estates – owned by Charles Innes-Ker, the 11th Duke of Roxburghe, and his family – are proposing to build the Southside data centre in the Lammermuirs in the Scottish Borders.
The proposed site covers around 151 hectares and the development would consist of three data centre buildings, each up to 24 metres high.
But preliminary planning documents for the proposed 225 MW site included a series of concerns raised by the local council and Scotland’s national nature agency about the potential environmental impact.
NatureScot said the developer’s initial proposal was “likely to have a significant effect” on the River Tweed Special Area of Conservation (SAC), citing the potential for sediment runoff or other contaminants, particularly during construction.
The site is around 1km from tributaries of the river, which is protected for species including Atlantic salmon, otter, brook lamprey and river lamprey.
A Scottish Borders Council official, meanwhile, separately warned that the development had the potential to affect nearby private water supplies through its construction.
The planning documents also stated that the data centre was expected to be supplied by Scottish Water and a borehole, prompting concerns from environmental campaign group Foxglove – which questioned why a development of this scale had been proposing both a connection and a borehole.
A spokesperson for Sunlaws Development Company has also since told the National that those options were being considered at that early stage but that the design has since moved to rainwater as the principal source – with a water mains connection “no longer being considered”.
The developer also said it was exploring a closed-loop cooling system, which would reduce the amount of water required during normal operation.
They added: “A borehole, if feasible, is being assessed as a backup option only, not as the basis of the development’s water use.”
But Foxglove – as well as countryside charity Action To Protect Rural Scotland – have also raised concerns over the project's proposed connection to the gas network.
The planning documents state that the proposed data centre would have a mains gas connection, with gas generation providing back-up and balancing power in the event of an emergency power outage and for generator testing.
But Foxglove has questioned the environmental implications of providing fossil gas infrastructure to a huge new energy-intensive development, arguing that reliance on gas could add to carbon emissions.
“It is deeply worrying that this data centre is seeking a connection to the gas grid,” Donald Campbell, advocacy director at Foxglove, said.
“We’ve already seen the huge pollution that results from running data centres off fossil gas power in the US. Any plans to do the same here must be stopped in their tracks. Gas-fired data centres will drive up carbon emissions, right at the time when we’re seeing the terrifying impacts of climate change here and around the world.”
It comes as the Scottish Borders Council set out on Monday the environmental requirements for the scheme, requiring further assessment of its potential impact on water, ecology, landscape, cultural heritage, noise and air quality.
The potential data centre will be required to undergo a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), with the developer expected to address the above issues before submitting the full planning application.
Asked about the environmental concerns raised by campaigners, NatureScot and the council, a spokesperson for Sunlaws Development Company stressed that the data centre has been designed “from the outset to use very little water” and so that it “does not depend on the public supply”.
They added: “The primary source of that water will be rain. Rainfall on the buildings’ 81,000 square metres of living roof will be collected in an on-site rainwater basin.”
Regarding NatureScot’s warning that the proposal could have a significant effect on the River Tweed SAC, the spokesperson claimed that this is the “standard position for any development with a watercourse connection to the Tweed catchment”.
They went on: “It is one of the reasons the council concluded that an Environmental Impact Assessment is required, and the developer had already chosen to carry one out.”
The statement went on to say that the data centre will be “from the electricity grid, not by gas”.
It read: “The site was chosen because it sits next to the Fallago Rig and Dunside wind farms in the Lammermuirs, where wind generation is regularly constrained off because the grid cannot carry it south. Using that renewable electricity locally is the purpose of the project.
“The gas connection is for standby generation only, to keep the facility running during a grid outage and for the periodic testing that any standby plant requires. It will not run in normal operation.”
The spokesperson concluded: “Further public exhibitions will be held this autumn before any application is submitted. Water, air quality, ecology, noise, landscape and cultural heritage are all being assessed in the Environmental Impact Assessment, and the results will be published with the application.”
The Scottish Greens, meanwhile, said that the proposal “raises far more questions than answers” and reiterated calls for a moratorium on all data centre applications.
“This proposal raises far more questions than it answers. People are rightly concerned about a project that has promised the earth, yet looks more far-fetched, more extravagant and harder to defend with every new revelation,” MSP Laura Moodie said.
“We cannot sleepwalk into a climate-wrecking project of this scale, which increasingly appears to be putting tech giant profits ahead of local communities.”
She added: “Before anything moves forward, we need to know exactly what it means for our energy grid, water supplies, climate targets, roads and infrastructure, and, most importantly, for the communities that will have to live with the consequences.
“Local people deserve answers before decisions are made, not excuses after the damage has been done.
“The Scottish Government must stop leaving councils in the dark. It’s time for a moratorium on all applications for hyperscale data centres until there is a clear national plan and proper guidance in place.“
Kat Jones, the director of APRS, said that it “isn't a surprise” that this development wants to connect to the gas network as the site is “extremely close to the high pressure gas network”.
She added that while there isn’t a lot of detail at this stage, APRS would be concerned that once data centres are given planning permission they will seek to use gas rather than the grid for their energy needs.
Jones went on: Gas power generation for data centres is now commonplace in the US and Ireland, and will be absolutely catastrophic for accelerating climate change.
“If the Scottish Government want a strategic approach for data centre development, as they announced on Tuesday, they need to put a moratorium on the wild west of speculative developments sweeping across Scotland.”
