More than 1,000 objections have been lodged in 48 hours against plans for a hyperscale AI data centre at Chapelcross in Dumfries and Galloway. If approved, the development would have a capacity of almost 1GW and would be the largest data centre campus in the world.
Critics have focused on the developer’s own environmental impact assessment, which says the project would have a “moderate adverse and significant” greenhouse gas impact. The application documents also show that most of the proposed site is farmland rather than the brownfield ground of the former Chapelcross nuclear site. Scotland currently has 15 AI data centres in operation, and the largest, in Lanarkshire, has an operating capacity of 12MW.
Laura Moodie, Scottish Green MSP for South Scotland, said the scheme showed why her party had pushed for a moratorium on hyperscale proposals. She said that at full operation the site would use as much electricity as more than two million homes, and that its eight units would each stand taller than the Falkirk Wheel. She also warned that the cost of reinforcing the electricity network would ultimately land on household bills, and has urged people to write to Dumfries and Galloway Council to object.
Campaign groups want wider public scrutiny. Stop Climate Chaos Scotland and more than a dozen other organisations, including Action to Protect Rural Scotland, the Scottish Wildlife Trust and Friends of the Earth Scotland, have written to public finance minister Hannah Mary Goodlad asking for a formal public consultation on hyperscale data centres before any are approved. Their letter followed a Holyrood vote setting out that no planning decisions should be taken on proposed data centres until the Scottish Government has produced new guidance.
The Scottish Government said it would be inappropriate to comment on a live planning application, and Dumfries and Galloway Council has been approached for comment. Developers have been drawn to Scotland by its large supply of renewable electricity, which has driven a sharp rise in data centre applications across the country.
