Essex Google datacentre to emit 570,000 tonnes of CO2 every year

A new Google datacentre in Essex is expected to emit more than half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to 500 short-haul flights a week, planning documents show.

- Robert Booth UK technology editor

Spread across 52 hectares (128 acres), the Thurrock "hyperscale datacentre" will be part of a wave of mammoth computer and AI power houses if it secures planning consent.

The plans were submitted by a subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet, and the carbon impact emerged before a push by Donald Trump's White House and Downing Street to ramp up UK AI capacity.

Multibillion-dollar investment deals with some of Silicon Valley's biggest tech firms are expected to be announced during the US president's state visit to the UK, starting today.

The government has forecast a 13-fold rise in the amount of computer processing power Al will use by 2035 and is scrambling to supply datacentres to meet that demand in the hope the technology will boost Britain's weak economic productivity.