AT least 23 sites across Scotland have been identified as places for potential AI data centre development – but what are they, and who are they for?
There are 15 data centres already operating in Scotland – there are small clusters in Glasgow, and Edinburgh, and individual sites in Dundee and Aberdeen – but these are the much smaller "edge", "colocation" or "enterprise" variants, used to power IT systems for nearby banks, universities and to facilitate day-to-day internet usage.
The types of data centres now being proposed are known as "hyperscale" sites. AI models require huge amounts of computing capacity to be trained and rolled out at scale, these data centres are the sites this hardware is stored and operated.
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Most smaller data centres generally demand 10-50MW, whereas "hyperscale" sites can demand hundreds if not thousands.
The largest operational data centre in Scotland, the DataVita DV1 site in North Lanarkshire, has a capacity of 24MW.
Next to the Fife village of Auchtertool a 600MW data centre is currently being proposed, with 500-550MW sites at Hunterston and Ravenscraig, and a 300MW project sandwiched between residential homes, a hospital, care home and school in Larbert.
Currently the largest individual AI data centre site in the world is located in Nevada, demanding 650MW.
The size of the proposed hyperscale sites has prompted huge community backlash, with campaigners warning against the potential environmental, health and visual impacts the developments could have.
Who are these data centres for?
One of the concerns raised by local campaigners is that we, at present, do not know what firm the end user will be.
It is understood that the developers will not be the ones using the computing capacity of the data centres. Instead, they purchase the land, submit planning applications, develop the site and sell it off later down the line.
One site, the 300MW Apatura development in Larbert, is reportedly being eyed up by an unnamed American operator, with talks having taken place as early as October 2025, almost ten months before a planning application was submitted.
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Reports from the Financial Times indicated that Andy Burnham would look at limiting foreign ownership of AI data centres in the UK during his premiership, with a senior Labour source saying: "We do need data centres, but we need to think about who runs and owns those data centres.
"There has to be a framework for accountability and making sure that 100% of data centres aren’t owned by foreign companies.”
However, since he was confirmed in the role, there has been no public movement on this.
We do know that the AI Growth Zone in North Lanarkshire is being delivered in partnership with US cloud systems operator Corewave, which has built its business around selling server capacity to firms like Nvidia, OpenAI (developers of ChatGPT), Anthropic (developers of Claude) and Microsoft.
What has the backlash been?
Communities from across Scotland are preparing to rally at the Scottish Parliament on September 3, the second national demonstration on AI data centres held at Holyrood in 2026.
Elsewhere, a series of local protests have been held at various sites, including the Hunterston Estate in North Ayrshire, Auchtertool in Fife, Larbert near Falkirk and the Lammermuir Hills in the Borders.
Campaign groups have been established in most areas where a development is planned, with the national demonstration aiming to bring them all together.
Celebrity voices like Outlander star Sam Heughan and singer Susan Boyle have weighed in, backing the campaign against data centres.
What are people concerned about?
Local communities have raised concerns that the developments will have drastic impacts on the visual appeal of the landscape, while emitting heat that initial research suggests could warm the local area by an average of 2-4 degrees celsius, and producing a constant humming or whirring sound that may disrupt both people and wildlife.
While several developers have said they will be designing their data centres to be "heat network ready", there is minimal district heating available in Scotland, with no plans to rapidly extend the network into the areas where data centres are planned.
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When asked how it plans to recover or mitigate the impact of local heating in the absence of district heating, ILI Group, the firm behind the Auchtertool site, said: "The necessary infrastructure has been designed into the project so that heat can be utilised if suitable opportunities emerge.
"We are continuing to explore opportunities for future heat use, including supporting local businesses and food production where feasible."
Further concerns stem from the energy demand of the sites. Collectively, the 24 planned sites would demand more than 6.2GW, more than 1.5 times Scotland's current peak energy demand recorded at just over 4GW in December 2025, according to the National Energy System Operator (Neso).
Developers say that Scotland's abundant renewable energy potential and its cool climate makes it an obvious place to set up hyperscale data centres.
However, in a statement to the FT, Neso's chief executive said developers would struggle to get all of this energy from the UK energy grid if they were not "flexible" enough to reduce their energy demand – by turning off or slowing down servers – while winds are slower or solar energy less abundant.
Data companies require near constant uptime, with even minute outages causing widespread disruption to online services.
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To allow for this, developers are planning to install backup generators – many of which will use diesel or gas, while others plan on using forms of bio-diesel which while less carbon intensive continue to emit unpleasant smells impacting quality of life nearby.
One site, in South Gyle, Edinburgh, would emit more than 200,000 tonnes of carbon per year through its diesel generators according to developers Shelborn Drummond. This would be more carbon output than a second Edinburgh Airport, which was recorded as emitting 181,201 tonnes in 2024.
In Larbert, one of the few sites that was initially required to submit an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before the Scottish Government stepped in to demand one first for South Gyle and then Auchtertool and Wester Hermiston, it was found that its generators could make it one of Scotland's top 10 polluters, producing more nitrogen dioxide and nitrous oxide than Peterhead power station or Shell's natural gas plant in Mossmorran.
This ties into another concern raised by local communities, location. The Larbert site, which through routine testing of its backup power system would emit up to 44 times the healthy limit of nitrogen dioxide, is located less than 400m from the major Forth Valley Royal Hospital, the Glenbervie Kindergarten, and in the same business park as a care home.
Communities in other areas – such as Ravenscraig, Chapelhall and Auchtertool – have raised similar concerns with data centres now being planned on sites close to existing settlements, or land previously designated for housing or important green belt space.
Developers have claimed they will bring jobs and investment to the area, but several investigations from The Guardian, APRS and the Daily Record have found these figures are likely vastly inflated, and instead of hundreds or thousands of roles most hyperscale data centres would employ fewer than 100 workers, many of whom would likely be low-pay security or cleaning crews, with centres able to run on a skeleton crew of maintenance engineers.
When previously asked to comment on the job figures expected, ILI Group, which is planning three sites across Scotland, said it expects 120 permanent roles at its Auchtertool site.
In the organisation's objection to the project, APRS commented: "The applicant estimated that [the Auchtertool data centre] would employ about 120 people on site.
"However, there is no guarantee of this as the operator is unknown, or a guarantee of where any other supposedly supported jobs would be located, despite the postulated '540 jobs in Scotland'. There appears to be no evidence provided for this figure."
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A concern discussed widely by concerned parties is the water consumption of data centres. However, unlike older sites in the United States, most modern data centres use a form of cooling called "closed-loop", where coolants, either water or chemical mixes, are transferred between industrial-scale chillers and the computing rooms, allowing the same liquid to be used repeatedly and not requiring "top ups".
Closed-loop developments require much less water, a similar amount as a commercial office, although can be more energy intensive and there remains a burden on water-consumption from excess energy demands from generators or on-site sources.
There also remain questions over how this waste water or chemical compounds are later treated or disposed of.
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