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 data centres’ energy demand and how that can be integrated into the electricity system, as well as potential issues around planning decisions for local government. He also pointed out that “Adding demand in general is likely to put pressure on meeting decarbonisation goals”, but adding data centres “in the most sensible places” could mitigate some of those impacts.
The evidence session 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 Reporting Scotland on BBC News.