THE approval of a mega AI-data centre in the US that will be the size of 15,840 Tesco Extras should have Brits worried about the environmental impact of increasingly large data centres being built in the UK, AI experts have said.
They warned people in the UK’s major AI Growth Zones (AIGZs), such as Slough, should be especially concerned, as they have the potential to become “AI Drought Zones” over time.
Utah has recently approved a data centre, the Stratos Project, that will be three times the size of Manhattan and consume twice the electricity currently used by the entire state.
The data centre will span 40,000 acres, or 1,742,400,000 sq ft. That is the equivalent to 15,840 Tesco Extras, if you use the example of the 110,000 sq ft Yardley, Birmingham, Tesco Extra store.
Utah State University physics professor, Dr Rob Davies, says the data centre, in Utah’s Hansel Valley, will dump the heat equivalent to 23 atomic bombs into the environment each day.
Though the UK is unlikely to replicate the scale of the single Hansel Valley data centre, experts warn Brits should be worried about the “cumulative” environmental impact of AI data centres in the UK, specifically on water systems.
Heavy Industry
Mitali Deypurkaystha, AI Strategist & Author at Newcastle upon Tyne-based Impact Icon AI, said AI’s thirst for energy is only going to increase but that it will come at a severe environmental cost.
She said: “What makes projects like Utah’s so unsettling is that AI feels invisible to most people. In reality, it’s becoming a form of hidden heavy industry with enormous demands on land, power and water.
“As an AI strategist, I’m not arguing against AI itself, but against the increasingly frivolous use of it: the assumption that every prompt is somehow consequence-free.
“The real risk for the UK is not one giant Manhattan-sized site appearing overnight, but quietly building a nationwide infrastructure footprint that we don’t notice until the environmental costs become impossible to ignore.”
Water-stressed
Colette Mason, AI Ethics Consultant at London-based Clever Clogs AI, said water systems in AI Growth Zones are set to come under immense stress.
She added: “Although we’re not building AI data centres on the same scale as the Hansel Valley, what we are doing is earmarking drought zones and pretending we’re not.
“Too few people are aware of exactly how much heat AI data centres generate and how, in time, AI Growth Zones have the potential to become AI Drought Zones. In this context, NIMBYism makes perfect sense.
“Slough, as just one example, hosts over 32 data centres, making it one of the world’s largest AI hubs. The Environment Agency classifies the area as ‘seriously water stressed’, while Thames Water estimates data centres could drive 30% of all new water demand in the region.
“84% of proposed UK data centres are in areas already water-stressed or projected to be by 2040. Exactly who is overseeing this, where is the governance and are we truly aware of the environmental impact of data centres that consume energy on an unprecedented scale?”
Fragmented systems
Katrina Young, AI & Digital Transformation Strategist at KYC Digital, also warned governance, or rather the lack of it, is a key issue in the UK, as the country starts to move in the same direction as the US.
She said: “AI Growth Zones are being positioned as economic policy, but decisions around grid capacity, water demand, heat rejection and land use are still assessed through fragmented processes across different bodies.
“The real risk is not one oversized site. It is cumulative concentration. The UK could approve clusters of hyperscale AI infrastructure before any single authority has fully assessed the combined impact on energy resilience, water systems and regional capacity.”
Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash.
