Planned new AI datacentre could emit more CO2 than five airports

A vast new datacentre to feed Britain's rising demand for artificial intelligence could cause more greenhouse gas emissions than five international airports.

- Robert Booth

Elsham datacentre in Lincolnshire is on course to cost £10bn and its 15 power-hungry computer warehouses are projected to release five times the carbon dioxide of Birmingham airport, including from takeoffs and landings.

A planning application for the facility nine miles east of Scunthorpe was submitted last month and a public consultation closes in three weeks.

Documents estimate the datacentre would consume 3.7bn kWh of energy, with annual CO2 emissions of 857,254 tonnes when running at full tilt. This is based on the current mix of energy sources powering the National Grid.

The datacentre will also create so much excess heat that greenhouses are being proposed with capacity to produce more than 10 tonnes of tomatoes a day.

Global tech firms are struggling to meet their carbon-cutting goals. By 2030, carbon dioxide emissions from AI datacentres will be six times the 2023 level, according to research by the Oko-Institut in Germany. Greenpeace has called for commensurate renewable energy capacity to be added to national grids at the same time as new datacentres are built.