A massive increase in the number of data centres in the UK is being fast-tracked to cope with surging demand for digital services.
New government figures reveal plans to expand the network by a fifth to serve a range of online activities such as movie streaming and banking.
Construction researchers Barbour ABI have told the BBC that the current 477 centres will jump by almost 100, as the growth in artificial intelligence (AI) increases the need for processing power.
In March this year Accenture acquired Soben, an East Kilbride based provider of construction consultancy services operating in data centre development.
“The market for capital projects and especially data centres is growing rapidly, driven by ever-higher demand for cloud computing and AI and exponential data growth,” said Steve Roberts, senior managing director, Accenture Industry X.
“Hyperscalers and co-location companies are under tremendous pressure to deliver on this demand.”
However, there are concerns about the huge amount of energy and water the new data centres will consume, creating environmenatal concerns, with some experts warning it could drive up electricity prices.
According to the documents analysed by Barbour ABI, more than half of the new data centres would be in London and neighbouring counties, nine in Wales and five in Greater Manchester.
The documents highlight only one in Scotland (Strathclyde), the site of the former Ravenscraig steelworks, which is already in the planning stage. However, it is one of five AI-ready sites that developer Apatura is progressing across Scotland’s central belt.
Many of those planned across the UK are funded by US tech giants such as Google and Microsoft and major investment firms.
The biggest is a £10-billion AI data centre in Blyth, near Newcastle, for the American private investment and wealth management company Blackstone Group.
It would involve 10 giant buildings covering 540,000 square metres – the size of several large shopping centres – on the site of the former Blyth Power Station. Work is set to begin in 2031 and last for more than three years.
Microsoft is planning four data centres in the UK at cost of £330 million, two in the Leeds area, one near Newport in Wales, and a five-storey site in north west London.
Google is building two data centres, totalling £450m, spread over 400,000 sq m in north east London.
Some analysts say the UK is already the third-largest nation for data centres behind the US and Germany as the UK government designates data centres as critical national infrastructure.
However, apart from the impact on the electricity grid, there are concerns about the environmental impact of these enormous buildings, not just visually but because they require large quantities of water to prevent them from overheating.
Data centre owners are working on new cooling methods but amid doubts about progress, water companies have expressed concern about the impact of these facilities on supplies.
Ten new reservoirs are being built in Lincolnshire, the West Midlands and south-east England.
In Dublin there is a moratorium on the building of any new data centres because of the strain existing ones have placed on Ireland’s national electricity provider. In 2023 they accounted for one fifth of the country’s energy demand.
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