UK datacentre expansion raises concerns over water, energy and housing

The UK’s plans to triple the number of datacentres by 2030 are raising concerns over their impact on water supplies, energy demand, local temperatures and housing, with Slough emerging as a focal point of the debate.

Slough Trading Estate, west of London, has become one of Europe’s largest datacentre hubs, with as many as 40 facilities already operating in the area and more planned.

The sites are operated by companies including Equinix, Digital Realty and Iron Mountain and serve major technology companies such as Amazon, Google, Oracle and Microsoft.

The rapid expansion has drawn attention to the large amounts of electricity and water required to operate and cool the facilities, particularly as artificial intelligence increases demand for computing capacity, The Guardian writes.

At a datacentre operated by Equinix in Slough, a low industrial noise could be heard from outside the building. Across the road, an employee of Thames Water said she had seen social media posts about the amount of water used by datacentres and AI.

Residents in nearby Britwell have also reported concerns. One local resident described hearing a constant whirring and buzzing noise at night and said the area appeared to experience more heat since new datacentres had been built.

Early research, including a recent preprint by researchers at Cambridge University, suggests datacentres can produce a local “heat island” effect, increasing temperatures in their immediate surroundings by an average of 2C and, in some cases, by as much as 9C. The corporate owners of Slough Trading Estate have said there is no conclusive evidence that datacentre operations there are causing local temperature increases.

Water consumption has become another point of concern. Water UK recently said existing government water forecasts were “fatally flawed” and explicitly excluded datacentres. Individual facilities can use up to 5 million gallons of water a day, equivalent to the consumption of as many as 50,000 people.

The expansion is also placing pressure on the UK’s energy infrastructure. Senior figures at Ofgem have said 100 planned UK datacentres intend to generate their own electricity using gas. In the US, some facilities are similarly developing dedicated gas turbines, while diesel generators are a standard backup feature.

The issue has increasingly become politically contentious in the US, where New York imposed a one-year pause on new hyperscale datacentres and Texas ordered that new centres would not join its power grid until regulators reviewed their water and energy use.

In the UK, datacentres have been designated critical national infrastructure, while their electricity requirements have already contributed to delays in housebuilding in London.

A recent redevelopment decision involving the former Truman Brewery site illustrates the tension. The approved project will include a datacentre, offices and 44 homes, compared with an alternative plan supported by the local council that centred on 350 new dwellings.

The developments have raised a broader question for policymakers as datacentre expansion accelerates: whether growing demand for computing infrastructure could increasingly compete with communities’ needs for water, energy and housing.

By Aghakazim Guliyev