The Guardian ·
Planning permission for new Scottish AI datacentres suspended for up to a year
Scottish parliament brings in strict environmental impact assessments and will delay decisions until national strategy is developed
Holyrood has voted to pause planning applications for all new AI datacentres for up to a year until the Scottish government has developed a national strategy.
On Wednesday, MSPs backed a Scottish Labour motion to halt new schemes for up to 12 months while rules on hyperscale datacentres are developed in what could be a blow to the British government’s AI strategy.
Scotland has seen a boom in planning applications for large datacentres as global investment in AI infrastructure has exploded, with British officials encouraging developers to include Scotland in the infrastructure buildout. Datacentres are critical for storing and processing data used by AI. One scheme in Auchtertool, Fife, has been billed as the second largest in the world, and is among more than 20 large datacentres proposed so far.
