Large datacentre planning applications in Scotland will face new environmental checks, as developers prepare for more stringent requirements introduced by ministers.
New facilities with a power capacity exceeding 50 megawatts (MW) will have to go undergo rigorous environmental impact assessments (EIA) during the planning process to ensure greater safeguards around energy and water use.
The new direction has been developed with input from the Scottish Science Advisory Council (SSAC), Scotland’s highest level science advisory body.
It provides independent advice and recommendations on science strategy, policy and priorities, through its chair, to the chief scientific adviser (CSA) for Scotland and to Scottish ministers.
The new checks come after a direction last month requiring planning authorities to notify Scottish ministers of all new datacentre applications within seven days of validation.
Hannah Mary Goodlad, public finance minister, said:“The Scottish Government recognises that datacentres are a rapidly evolving sector attracting a broad range of views, opinions and concerns, and that evidence on the environmental impact of data centres continues to develop.
“As this is an emerging industry, we have the opportunity to get this right from the start. The guidance issued today is the next step in that process.”
She added: “We must balance the economic and employment interests in developing datacentres with national energy, climate and community wealth building ambitions, which are vital to our future prosperity, as well as the potential impact on local communities.
“Ensuring that an environmental impact assessment is always part of the application process will create a level playing field for developers and will ensure potentially significant environmental effects are considered from the outset.”
An EIA is a means of drawing together, in a ‘systematic way’, an assessment of the likely significant environmental effects arising from a proposed development.
Where a planning application does not meet the 50MW threshold and falls outwith the scope of the direction, it must still be considered under established EIA regulations.
Recent applications include plans for one of largest datacentres in the UK with a 300 megawatt facility on a disused commercial site on the outskirts Falkirk.
Plans submitted to the local council reveal that the sprawling 55-acre site on the local Glenbervie Business Park in Larbert could create thousands of jobs and attract nearly £1 billion investment into Scotland.
Apatura, a renewable energy developer with offices in Edinburgh and York, is behind the plans for the ‘green’ data centre, and has indicated that it will connect to the firm’s already-consented battery energy storage (BESS) site two miles north of the site.
Glasgow-based DataVita has also submitted plans for a new facility, and an extension of an existing datacentre in Lanarkshire.
