Data Centre Watch Updated 24 October 2026, 13:03 UTC
Data Centre Watch
The local fight over one field is one row in a national rush. This is a rolling, fully sourced record of what changed — the schemes, the planning decisions, the power and water, and the wider world picture.
days under a hosepipe ban
Under a hosepipe ban for 107 days — since 10 July 2026 (as of 24 October 2026).
Affinity Water — Central region (incl. WD5), extended to the East region
11 areas in drought, parts of 4 in severe · reservoirs 54% · the water picture →
Latest
151 entries · showing 106–120
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AWS plans 36 data centres on a 4.5GW gas plant in Pennsylvania
A 36-building campus across 1,100 acres on the former Homer City coal station, powered mainly by a new 4.5GW gas plant being built alongside it; construction runs in four stages to 2036.
Why it matters: A coal station swapped for gas-fed compute — the scale and the carbon, in one site.
Source: EUROPE SAYS [C]
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SNP moves to freeze new datacentres in Scotland
An SNP national council motion calls for a moratorium on all new datacentres in Scotland, potentially covering projects without planning permission. It says the 24 hyperscale schemes in planning would together use more than one-and-a-half times Scotland's peak power demand.
Why it matters: The country positioned as the UK's AI powerhouse is debating hitting pause — the campaign's 'assess it first' argument, at national scale.
Source: DailySynapse [C]
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Lanarkshire AI growth zone questioned over land and jobs
Residents near Newarthill and Airdrie are questioning the promised benefits of the CoreWeave/DataVita zone: 1GW needs ~44 km² of nearby land by conservative estimates, but current holdings appear to be under a tenth of that, and Action to Protect Rural Scotland says the 3,400-job figure could be 'a hundred times' too high.
Why it matters: The gap between headline jobs/land claims and what is actually secured — the campaign's recurring question.
Source: DailySynapse [C]
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Google's $15bn India campus faces local resistance
Google's gigawatt-scale AI hub in Visakhapatnam — its biggest outside the US, part of a $15bn investment — is meeting protests; Google says it will use air cooling rather than the area's scarce water, but activists want a state-wide moratorium until the impacts are known.
Why it matters: Air-versus-water cooling and the 'assess it first' demand — the campaign's exact questions, exported.
Source: Gulf News / AFP [C]
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PJM gets emergency power to curtail data centres in a heatwave
The US grid operator for 13 states won emergency DOE approval to cut power to data centres and large loads that have backup generation during a record heatwave, with demand forecast near 166GW.
Why it matters: The grid is now formally allowed to switch big AI loads off — the 'always-on' assumption, ended.
Source: bbvk.org [C]
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Nvidia plans Israel's largest server farm ($1.5bn, 64MW)
Nvidia is set to lease a 30,000 m² facility near Yokneam for a 64MW Blackwell-powered site, part of a push making Israel its second-largest R&D hub outside the US.
Why it matters: The chipmaker moving further into owning the buildings, not just the chips.
Source: G&B Daily News [C]
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AMD and Anthropic plan up to 2GW of MI450 compute
A strategic partnership to deploy up to 2GW of AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs in Helios rackscale systems, with the first gigawatt from H1 2027 — a challenge to Nvidia's lock on AI capacity.
Why it matters: Compute supply is diversifying, but every gigawatt still lands on the same grid.
Source: DailySynapse [C]
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Leeds approves Microsoft's £4bn Skelton Grange campus — against a 44,000-signature petition
Leeds City Council granted permission for Microsoft's complex on the former Skelton Grange power station (three data halls plus a warehouse) despite a petition of more than 44,000 signatures; the West Yorkshire Mayor defends it on economic grounds while the Green group raises water and energy concerns.
Why it matters: A brownfield site near renewables — the profile campaigners say they want — was still contested. Consent and consent-to-the-locals are different things.
Source: Armason weekly [C]
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Green Party: strip data centres of automatic 'critical infrastructure' status
The Green Party wants data centres to lose their automatic Critical National Infrastructure classification, with tighter planning rules, full community consultation, brownfield-first siting near renewables, and audited annual water and electricity figures. CPRE adds that 100+ schemes are in the pipeline with no government body tracking them.
Why it matters: The 'national need' that overrides local plans is now being challenged at the level of the label itself.
Source: Armason weekly [C]
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Regen: a 1GW gas data centre could emit up to 5.7 Mt CO₂ a year
Regen estimates a 1GW gas-fired data centre could emit 2.7–5.7 million tonnes of CO₂ a year, and that of 152 UK applications only 13% mention on-site generation and 9% state a connection type. It calls for mandatory power disclosure in applications and a moratorium on gas-primary schemes.
Why it matters: The disclosure gap, in numbers — most applications don't say how they'll be powered, in a country promising net zero.
Source: Armason weekly [C]
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CoreWeave enters India with a 240MW Navi Mumbai campus
CoreWeave will be sole tenant across three 80MW buildings at AdaniConneX's Taloja campus near Navi Mumbai — its first India site, with room to double to 480MW and NVIDIA Vera Rubin in liquid-cooled halls from mid-2028.
Why it matters: AI compute spreading into new power and water systems — the same build, a different grid.
Source: Data Centre Magazine [C]
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Project Longhorn: 490MW of on-site gas in Texas, despite a permit halt
A $366m Texas data centre ('Project Longhorn', tied to Anthropic) has been filed for 490MW of IT capacity powered by 710MW of on-site simple-cycle gas turbines — advancing through an alternative regulatory pathway while the Governor's order halts new permits pending an ERCOT grid audit.
Why it matters: Purpose-built gas generation as the default for AI, and projects routing around state-level pauses.
Source: Data Center Digest [C]
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Texas freezes new data-centre permits as its queue hits 474GW
ERCOT has frozen all new data-centre permits after its interconnection queue swelled to 474GW — about 90% of it data centres. Only 28 of 377 data-centre firms answered a state water-use survey, and Amazon's colocation plan with Talen's nuclear plant was rejected.
Why it matters: The state that sold itself on cheap power and light regulation has paused the queue — and most operators won't even answer the survey.
Source: SaaS News [C]
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The UK's data-centre pipeline: 173 projects, 14.6GW against ~1.6GW existing
Analysis puts the UK pipeline at 173 committed projects totalling ~14.6GW of planned capacity, versus ~1.6GW of existing capacity — a tenfold gap. It also cites UK power costs at roughly four times US levels (an estimated £226m a year for a 100MW site) and ~1.9bn litres of English data-centre water use a year that operators aren't required to report.
Why it matters: The scale of what's proposed, the price of power, and the water nobody has to disclose — in three numbers.
Source: Servnet / Computer Weekly [C]
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Nvidia reported to take a 1GW Texas data-centre lease
Nvidia is reported as the tenant behind a lease worth up to $50.2bn at Hut 8's one-gigawatt Beacon Point campus — using its balance sheet to underwrite the project. Neither company has confirmed the tenant.
Why it matters: A chipmaker now financing, not just supplying, the buildings — and it revives the 'circular AI financing' question.
Source: Paris Times [C]
Watchlist — what lands next
| What | State | When |
|---|---|---|
| Data-centre National Policy Statement (NPS) | Still unpublished; projects already being directed into the NSIP regime without it. | Expected 'shortly after' the Jan 2026 regulations |
| Ofgem 'Curate' data-centre connection reform | Consultation closed 17 Sep 2026; decision pending — commitment fee £237,500–£712,500/MW. | Decision later in 2026 |
| Scotland — hyperscale planning guidance | Parliament agreed no decisions on hyperscale applications until guidance is published. | Guidance expected by December 2026 |
| Draft London Plan — data-centre policy GLE3 | Consultation closed 15 October 2026; responses under consideration. | Next draft / adoption pending |
| National Scheme of Delegation for planning functions (SI 2026/854) | Standardises which applications go to officers vs committee; non-compliant committee decisions open to judicial review. | In force 31 October 2026 |
| EU data-centre standards and rating scheme | Commission has adopted a data-centre sustainability rating scheme; consultation on minimum performance standards remains open. | Consultation closes 14 December 2026 |
| Environmental Audit Committee report (HC 22) | Inquiry 'Risks and opportunities to the sustainability of data centres in the UK'; report + government response due. | Awaiting publication |
| Three Rivers Local Plan examination | Plan submitted; examination in H1 2027, adoption targeted Sep 2027. | Submission 30 November 2026 |
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Fully sourced, no invented numbers
Every entry names its source and how it is known — verified, a designated claim, our calculation, or a gap. Where a claim is contested, we say so. See all reports & explainers →