A £2 billion AI data centre is planned for the Lammermuir Hills. Nearby, in Dumfries and Galloway, there are plans afoot to build the biggest data centre in the world at Chapelcross. Data centres consume natural and community resources on a vast scale, and they are blights on our landscape. Before any data centres are approved in the Scottish Borders, residents deserve straight answers about who benefits and who pays.
What’s happening
- The Lammermuir scheme: the proposal is to build a 225-megawatt data centre on Roxburgh Estates land in Berwickshire. Plans for anything over 50 megawatts require the input of Scottish Government ministers, and this is nearly five times that size.
- The timetable: environmental studies are under way, with a planning application expected in late 2026 or early 2027.
- The claims: the developer says the centre will create 1,000 temporary jobs during the construction phase, as well as 145 permanent jobs, and will be powered mainly by nearby renewable generation.
- The opposition: local campaigners, Save the Lammermuirs, oppose the plans because of the centre’s impact on the landscape, and there is widespread skepticism about the developer’s claims on energy use and job creation.
Why it matters
AI data centres use vast amounts of electricity and, often, water. Running at full power, a 225-megawatt data centre would use many times more electricity than every home in the Borders put together. Schemes like this drive demand for more pylons and grid connections across the Borders, the same infrastructure that communities are already fighting.
Our position
The Scottish Greens have called for a moratorium on the approval of data centre plans across Scotland, and we support the Scottish Government’s one-year pause on approvals in order to develop a more detailed policy on how to respond to these planning applications. Ultimately, we need to know more about these aspects of any applications for data centres:
- Energy and water: how much power and water a data centre will use, where these resources will come from, and whether continual use will strain the capacity of supply networks and increase the cost on residents
- Environmental impact: how the construction of a data centre will affect the landscape and local ecosystems, including wildlife
- Jobs: how many jobs will really go to local people on a permanent basis, not just for the brief period during construction
- Community benefits: how a data centre’s waste heat and profits will be directed towards the good of the community that hosts it.
