THE Scottish Greens have announced they will force a Holyrood vote on halting AI data centre applications.
They have accused SNP ministers of “sitting on the fence” as speculative proposals for the energy-hungry infrastructure continue to mount.
The Scottish Government has brought in new rules for AI data centres, requiring ministers to be made aware of new applications but the Greens said this does not go far enough.
Campaigners have been calling for a pause on new developments, as analysis showed that contracted energy demand for the projects was already one and a half times total peak energy demand across Great Britain.
The SNP’s national council has backed calls for a moratorium but the Scottish Government has not translated this into policy in Edinburgh.
Scottish Greens MSP Patrick Harvie said: “We will be forcing the Scottish Government to make a very simple choice. Will they put a pause on the rush to build hyperscale data centres, or will they continue to allow speculative applications to keep piling up with no national strategy in place?
“The Scottish Government has had plenty of time to act and till now has chosen not to. Telling councils to notify Ministers when an application arrives is not a strategy, and it does nothing to stop these developments. Very basic questions such as what defines a ‘green’ data centre have been left unanswered for far too long.”
So-called “green” data centres are identified in the Scottish Government’s planning framework as nationally significant infrastructure however there is no definition of what the term “green” means in this context.
Harvie added: “If ministers believe Scotland should continue accepting hyperscale data centres on this scale, they should say so. If they recognise that we need a national plan before these projects are allowed to reshape our energy system and our communities, they should back our motion.
“This vote, using the Greens’ parliamentary time, is an opportunity for every MSP, regardless of party allegiance, to stand with communities across Scotland and demand a pause while proper national rules are put in place. The Scottish Government should stop sitting on the fence and back our call for action.”
In a Holyrood debate on the topic earlier this month, SNP MSPs indicated sympathy with the anti-AI data centre campaign, the Sunday Mail reports.
Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley MSP Alan Brown said “serious consideration” should be given to a moratorium and Gary Bouse, MSP for Falkirk West, called for a “pause”.
Fulton McGregor, another SNP backbencher, told the Sunday Mail he personally backed a pause on developments but was “not sure” how he would vote, saying this would depend on the Green motion and whether it was amended.
Kat Jones, director of the Action to Protect Rural Scotland pressure group, said that the recent Holyrood debate showed “a remarkable level of agreement between the parties on this issue”.
She added: “We hope that the debate brought by the Greens will result in Parliament agreeing that a pause on hyperscale data centres has become necessary at this point to allow time for a strategic approach to be put in place.
“The hyperscale data centre applications are coming in thick and fast. There is now 1.2GW of data centre power demand in live planning applications, as much as is generated by Torness nuclear power station, with 6GW more that could come in any day.
"The pace of developers putting in planning applications is completely eclipsing the power of the Scottish Government to take any control of the situation, unless they use the planning system to pause applications while they put in their strategic approach.
“We believe that parties across the political spectrum are aware that NESO has overpromised on grid connections for data centres, and that there is an urgent need for the Scottish Government to properly examine the situation and look at what the implications of this are for Scotland.”
