Close Menu
Technology Mag

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    TikTok videos are about to get crowdsourced fact checks on them

    July 30, 2025

    The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 is stuck in a familiar orbit

    July 30, 2025

    EPA Employees Still in the Dark as Agency Dismantles Scientific Research Office

    July 30, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Subscribe
    Technology Mag
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    • Home
    • News
    • Business
    • Games
    • Gear
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Security
    • Trending
    • Press Release
    Technology Mag
    Home » Britain’s Brewing Battle Over Data Centers
    Business

    Britain’s Brewing Battle Over Data Centers

    News RoomBy News RoomJuly 5, 20243 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Email

    Discontent is brewing across the country, with opposition particularly strong in areas known as the “green belt,” swaths of countryside designated to prevent urban sprawl. Labour is well-aware the party’s plan to make it easier to build data centers risks causing conflict between developers and locals, according to two people with knowledge of internal party discussions. Residents in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Dublin have clashed with data center developers, complaining of the buildings’ insatiable appetite for power and water. All three cities have since imposed restrictions on new developments.

    “The question for national politicians, rather than poor little us, is: What does the country value most?” says Jane Griffin, spokesperson for the Colne Valley Regional Park, a stretch of farmland, woodland and lakes on the outskirts of London where there have been six applications to build new data centers. “Green spaces with trees and lakes? Or do we want a massive, great data center?”

    The British data center market is deeply secretive—there is no official record of how many there are in the UK. Many companies reason that releasing the locations of their server farms would expose them to potential attacks that could hamper critical industries. Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta all declined WIRED’s request to comment on the number of data centers they used or operated inside the country. There is also an array of smaller, more anonymous firms operating these sites. “Everyone just wants to hide and just get on with their business,” says Spencer Lamb, chief operating officer of Kao Data, who says his company has four UK data centers either in operation or still being built.

    Estimates of the number of data centers range from around 300 to over 500, with the majority clustered around London. What is widely understood is that the amount of power the sector consumes is set to explode as AI turbocharges demand. Right now, data centers are estimated to account for 1.4 percent of the country’s total consumer electricity demand, according to the National Grid. Over the next decade, power demands are expected to jump 500 percent.

    The location of those new data centers will be key, says Lamb. He’s hoping Labour’s strategy can prevent a repeat of what happened in Amsterdam, where residents complained about data centers becoming concentrated in a small area. “If these were spread across each country, it wouldn’t be causing pain and agony for those people in a specific location,” he says. “I can remember [when] each town and city had an industrial estate within it. It makes sense now that we should be putting these AI factories [data centers] into the equivalent.”

    Yet under a Conservative government, developers have rushed to anywhere there is available power, often running into community resistance when they arrive. “Right now, it’s hard to get access to both land and power planning permission in order to build,” says Bruce Owen, managing director for Equinix UK, global data center provider. “The process is very lengthy and cumbersome.”

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleSexist Myths Are a Danger to Health
    Next Article The Polar Grit X2 Pro is a smartwatch that feels adrift

    Related Posts

    The Real Demon Inside ChatGPT

    July 29, 2025

    Programmers Aren’t So Humble Anymore—Maybe Because Nobody Codes in Perl

    July 29, 2025

    60 Italian Mayors Want to Be the Unlikely Solution to Self-Driving Cars in Europe

    July 29, 2025

    Tesla Readies a Taxi Service in San Francisco—but Not With Robotaxis

    July 29, 2025

    Trump’s Anti-Bias AI Order Is Just More Bias

    July 28, 2025

    Cursor’s New Bugbot Is Designed to Save Vibe Coders From Themselves

    July 26, 2025
    Our Picks

    The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 is stuck in a familiar orbit

    July 30, 2025

    EPA Employees Still in the Dark as Agency Dismantles Scientific Research Office

    July 30, 2025

    The Nvidia RTX 5060 Can’t Quite Beat AMD

    July 30, 2025

    This Star System Contains 5 Potentially Habitable Planets

    July 30, 2025
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo
    Don't Miss
    Gear

    Top Verizon Promo Codes and Deals for August 2025

    By News RoomJuly 30, 2025

    Back in the day, Verizon proved their expansive reach with the spokesperson who asked “Can…

    Opera is filing a complaint over Microsoft’s tricks that push you to use Edge

    July 29, 2025

    YouTube tells creators they can drop more F-bombs

    July 29, 2025

    Lovense was told its sex toy app leaked users’ emails and didn’t fix it

    July 29, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    © 2025 Technology Mag. All Rights Reserved.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.