Hundreds of people travelled to Edinburgh on Thursday to call for an immediate moratorium on Scotland’s datacentre boom. The protest outside Holyrood saw campaigners demand a pause to the buildout until the Scottish government produces an analysis of the environmental impact of the centres and clear planning guidance on the definition of a “green” datacentre.
Kat Jones, director of Action to Protect Rural Scotland, is leading the campaign. She stated that Thursday's protest was the largest yet. At least 20 datacentre projects are currently proposed, including one in Auchtertool, Fife, which has been described as the second largest in the world.
First Minister John Swinney, in his programme for government on Tuesday, said he would take a strategic approach to datacentres with “expectations around environmental sustainability, resource use, community benefit.” However, he did not agree to a moratorium.
Campaigners, including Kathleen White, who is opposing a proposed £2bn datacentre in the Lammermuir hills, argue that the government's current approach is insufficient. The Scottish Greens and Reform UK have also backed the opposition, with Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer noting that proposed hyper-scale datacentres could require more energy than Scotland's current peak demand.
The Scottish government has stated that all planning authorities must notify ministers of new datacentre applications exceeding 50MW within a week to monitor their infrastructure impact, while also underscoring their importance for economic growth. Hannah Mary Goodlad, public finance minister for Scotland, said community voices would be central to any considerations on datacentres.