UKERC Researcher Dr Callum MacIver appeared before the Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Tourism and Energy Committee on 15 September to discuss the implications of growing energy demand from data centres in Scotland.
The evidence session examined how the expansion of data centres, including facilities supporting artificial intelligence, could interact with Scotland’s electricity system, renewable generation and decarbonisation objectives. Dr MacIver appeared alongside representatives from the National Energy System Operator and the University of Edinburgh.
Dr MacIver highlighted that there is a large degree of uncertainty around the scale of future energy demand from data centres but noted it is likely to be a significant part of the demand mix in the coming years. He discussed how that demand could be integrated into the electricity system, pointing out that rapidly “adding demand in general is likely to put pressure on meeting decarbonisation goals” through increased use of fossil fuels on the system, but noted that adding data centres “in the most sensible places” could mitigate some of those impacts by utilising otherwise constrained renewable energy.
The evidence session also discussed potential issues around planning decisions for local government and forms part of the Committee’s work examining energy use by data centres in Scotland, following an earlier session on the economic impact of artificial intelligence.
Callum was featured in a BBC news article on the session, and on the Reporting Scotland BBC News show.