The huge data centre proposed in Fife
They are huge and demanding, but will Scotland learn to love data centres, asks TERRY MURDEN
Four miles west of Kirkcaldy is the village of Auchtertool which, until now, seemed to have more of a past than a future. A brewery and whisky distillery are long gone, along with nearby Hallyards Castle, once visited by King James V. Somewhat appropriately, the village was also the location of one of the last duels in Scotland as it is now in the midst of another shoot-out that has implications for other parts of the country.
ILI Group wants to invest £5 billion into a 600MW hyperscale data centre, named Cato, bringing 120 permanent jobs to the area. Independent analysis by BiGGAR Economics indicates that construction alone could generate approximately £708 million in Gross Value Added (GVA) across Scotland, including around £105m in Fife.
However, many of the locals don’t want it. More than 200 residents, almost a third of the population, attended a meeting to express their opposition to an industrial development covering an area equivalent to 100 football pitches, larger than the village itself. The buildings will be the height of eight double-decker buses stacked on top of each other.
Andrea Cail, chair of the village’s community council, said: “This is a big issue. Not just for Auchtertool, not just for Fife, not just for Scotland but for the world, and we have to make a stand.”
Similar concerns are emerging across Scotland which has been earmarked for more than 20 large data centre developments as the adoption of artificial intelligence and cloud computing increase demand on the grid.
Among those in process, ILI also wants data centres in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, while AI Pathfinder, a subsidiary of Salamanca, a London-based property development company led by entrepreneur Martin Bellamy, is pledging an initial £385m and a long-term commitment of £15bn to develop a facility in North Ayrshire.
An abundance of renewable energy, a skilled workforce, a cool climate, and plentiful brownfield land is driving developers north of the border, encouraged by an economic strategy that includes building a powerful AI cluster.
However, as the number of applications increases, so do local concerns, mainly over visual impact, noise and water usage. Aside from the core facility there are electricity substations, security fences, gatehouses and other infrastructure to consider.
Then there are the environmental issues. For most commercial buildings, cooling demand is seasonal. For data centres it is not. Cooling runs continuously, regardless of whether it is July or January, because servers generate heat around the clock. The International Energy Agency has projected that global data centre energy demand could increase tenfold by 2026, driven by the expansion of AI infrastructure alone. A substantial part of that growth is cooling, and unlike office or retail cooling, it does not ease off in winter.
Water usage and the wider environmental impact were reasons behind the stalling of a data centre proposed for a former RBS building at South Gyle in Edinburgh. City councillors, driven by the Green Party members, demanded a temporary moratorium pending clarification of what constitutes a green data centre.
The Scottish Government’s official position is that to be considered a green data centre, planning authorities “may wish to consider criteria such as the extent to which the data centre is powered from renewable energy sources; makes use of energy efficient technologies; seeks to minimise water consumption; and supports the re-use of excess heat.”
This has prompted concerns that developers can achieve green status by implementing smaller-scale sustainable technology, such as energy-efficient lighting or water-efficient toilets, while still producing a large carbon footprint.
There are worries that this negativity will be damaging to Scotland’s long-term prospects. Sandy Begbie, chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise, said that the opposition to data centres would send the wrong signals to the investment community when the demand for centres is clearly rising.
Security is an added concern. A significant volume of data is currently managed by centres in other countries, including Ireland, Norway, the UAE and US.
Danny Quinn, who heads up DataVita in Lanarkshire, named as the location for Scotland’s AI Growth Zone, told the recent DataFest that Edinburgh Council had to avoid a “catastrophic error” by banning data centres and dismissed the claims being made about them being a drain on water supplies as a coolant.
“It may be a massive issue in California, but our climate is somewhat different,” he said, noting that DataVita uses barely any water.
Danny Quinn: Data is the new oil
On the broader growth of the industry, he said: “Scotland has four times as much energy as it needs. It costs taxpayers £1bn a year to turn that energy off, money that goes to wind developers. Data centres are an ideal consumer of that energy. It would lower bills right away.”
He added: “We need to see datacentres as an exporter. It is the new oil. I cannot stress the demand for intelligence and I hope we can be as proud of data as we are of whisky.”
Responding to claims that some firms are guilty of greenwashing, he said that “slapping green on the front of things is not helpful”, but the DataVita centre has minimal emissions.
“A data centre in Scotland using 100% green energy will emit 4gms of CO2 per kilowatt/hour. In London it is 200gms, Wales 300gms. In Poland, with a massive data centre industry, it is 800gms, and in the US it is into the thousands.”
ILI says its proposed data centre at Auchtertool is being brought forward on land identified for employment use within the current Fife Local Development Plan.
The projected annual water use is equivalent to that of approximately 239 homes and would be supplied through separate infrastructure from that serving Auchtertool village, with Scottish Water confirming sufficient capacity exists to support the project.
Mark Wilson, the company’s chief executive, says: “Demand for data processing and AI infrastructure is growing rapidly across the world, and Scotland is well placed to play a leading role in meeting that demand thanks to its skilled workforce, strong renewable energy resources and existing industrial expertise.
“Cato represents a significant opportunity for Fife, bringing substantial investment, supporting high-quality jobs and helping to establish the region as a key location for future digital infrastructure.
“We look forward to continuing our engagement with local communities and stakeholders as the application progresses through the planning process.”
You don’t have a clue. NO information has been given by the developers as to precisely how much water, electricity and other resources are going to be consumed by the ridiculously named “Cato” data centre ( what does an ancient Roman philosopher and senator have to do with Auchtertool?) Furthermore, an independent environment impact assessment has not been provided, which should be essential for a colossal development of this scale.