Communities and campaigners across the U.K have joined forces for two days of action to highlight environmental concerns over the projected rapid growth of data centers.
The national days of action have been organised by the non-profit Global Action Plan and take place today (27 February) and tomorrow.
The days of action will include a range of activities designed draw attention to the impacts this new form of infrastructure will have on the environment and local communities.
These include a “march against the machines” in London and an online meeting about the rise of data centers, which will be hosted by the groups Action to Protect Rural Scotland and Global Justice Now.
The events also come as MPs in Westminster launched a new inquiry on the environmental impacts of data centers in the U.K.
The inquiry by the environmental audit committee will examine will be how much energy and water data centres are likely to use, and how this could impact the Government’s net zero goals.
Committee chair Toby Perkins said it is critical “we really consider what the impacts of data centers will be before we charge into approving them en masse”, in a statement.
The committee has also published a letter to its chairman from energy secretary Ed Miliband, in which the minister says future energy demand from data centers “remains inherently uncertain”.
Oliver Hayes, head of campaigns at Global Action Plan, said the unchecked construction of hyperscale AI data centers is putting the U.K’s climate targets at risk, in a statement.
Hayes added communities across the U.K are fighting to have their voices heard, but are being drowned out, while developers and lobbyists “hold the ear of government”.
“Giving Big Tech the power to monopolise our energy and water supply at the expense of our communities and climate, without any guarantee that these data centers will benefit society, is as reckless as it is foolish,” he added.
Concerns have been raised by groups in both the U.K. and the U.S. over the rapid demand for data centres and the water and electricity needed to keep them operating.
Angela Hultberg, global head of sustainability at global consulting firm Kearney, said the surge in data center demand is placing unprecedented strain on the U.K’s power and water infrastructure, in an email.
But Hultberg added if managed properly, it could actually accelerate smarter and more sustainable technologies.
She said Kearney and the World Economic Forum’s recent research shows data center capacity growth is expected to account for 8-10% of the increase in electricity demand by 2035.
“When it comes to water use, the impact can be significant,” said Hultberg.
“A single 100MW hyperscale facility can consume as much water as 80,000 people, often in water-stressed regions such as the south-east of England.
“Concentrating large numbers of data centers in and around London increases pressure on already constrained infrastructure, whereas locating them in cooler regions with higher rainfall, such as Scotland, eases these pressures significantly.”
Maksim Sonin, a member of Stanford University’s Hydrogen Initiative and the Stanford Center for Fuels of the Future, said environmental concerns are on the table, given the pace of AI deployment, in an email.
But Sonin added he expects computing-enabled gains to outweigh those pressures in the medium to long term.
“In the near term, AI’s power demand is immediate,” he said. “Given transmission constraints, new capacities will likely be built closer to where generation can be co-located with load in the UK. We are already seeing this trend in the U.S.
And Sonin said the U.K. is also well positioned to deploy nascent floating data centers that can operate autonomously and independently of the local grid, which could run on renewables, natural gas, or nuclear.