New guidance to assist planning decisions on new data centres will be issued by the Scottish Government before Christmas, MSPs have been promised.
Public finance minister Hannah Mary Goodlad made the commitment as Holyrood rejected a Green motion calling for a moratorium on all developments of this kind to be put in place to allow for guidelines to be developed.
Green MSP Patrick Harvie had urged MSPs to back a moratorium and “press pause” on planned hyperscale data centres.
But speaking for the Scottish Government, Ms Goodlad insisted: “We do not agree there should be a moratorium.
“That is not necessary, it is not appropriate. It would send the wrong message to anyone looking to invest in Scotland.”
Instead, she promised MSPs that guidance for planning authorities to apply when considering applications would be in place within three months.
“We are committed to coming back before Christmas with guidelines that will give business but also communities confidence in this,” she said.
After hearing from the minister, Holyrood voted by 72 votes for 32 with 16 abstentions for a Government amendment to the Green motion, which pledged the “swift creation of national planning and spatial guidance by the end of the year for the determination of conditions under which data centre development should be permitted”.
Ms Goodlad said it is “highly unlikely” decisions on any planned data centres would be made by local councils before the guidance is produced.
Mr Harvie however argued that the new guidance would not be enough to prevent applications for hyperscale data centres from being considered by local authorities on a “piecemeal basis”.
The Green MSP said: “Planning guidance on its own is never going to be enough to enable local authorities to decide the overall level of data infrastructure Scotland needs.”
The debate took place amid growing concerns from communities across Scotland about the impact of new data centres on their local areas.
Environmentalists have raised concerns about the amount of energy they require, with Mr Harvie insisting the “scale of electricity demand we’re talking about is staggering”.
He said: “Just the first 24 current proposals would equal 1.5 times Scotland’s peak electricity demand, and the Government wants to attract even more of these developments.”
Claiming there is “no strategic approach being taken” to such developments, he added: “It’s not just us who are saying it is time to press pause on the rollout of this infrastructure. Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Action to Protect Rural Scotland, and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland are saying the same thing.”
The debate took place after the public finance minister announced that environmental impact assessments will be required for all planned date centres with a capacity of 50 megawatts or above.
Announcing the change – which will apply to new applications and those already in the system – Ms Goodland said data centres “are a rapidly evolving sector” and evidence about their impact on the environment continues to develop.
A Labour amendment, which stressed that no planning decisions should be taken before guidance has been developed was also passed by Holyrood.
Dr Kat Jones, director of Action to Protect Rural Scotland, which has led protests against planned data centres, hailed the result as a “landmark day for all those communities across Scotland who have been extremely concerned about projects coming forward in their areas”.
She added: “There’s much still to be done but this is a huge step forward and we can all at least take a breath now.
“The Scottish Greens have been working tirelessly to see a pause in planning decisions until there is a proper national strategy in place, and Scottish Labour have played a huge role today in getting this over the line.
“It’s great that Scottish ministers and the Parliament as a whole have now endorsed text that says no decisions on planning or consenting should be made until that guidance and strategy is complete.
“That means Scottish Government must now urgently call in those applications which are approaching a decision date. The communities will expect nothing less.”
