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An On the wire story
A proposed hyperscale datacentre on the edge of London would emit more than 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year once fully operational, according to planning papers filed by its developer, making it one of the most polluting schemes of its kind disclosed in the UK.
The East Havering Data Centre Campus, planned for North Ockendon on 218 hectares of green belt, is intended to serve AI and cloud computing workloads and would, if approved, rank among the largest datacentres in Europe. The Guardian’s analysis of planning material for dozens of UK datacentre proposals found that this scheme carries the highest projected emissions yet made public by a developer.
Digital Reef, the company behind the £14.7bn project, says in its submission that the development is not compatible with a science-based path to limiting warming to 1.5°C or with net zero by 2050.
The papers estimate total emissions of more than 72 million tonnes of CO2e over a 60-year lifespan, with annual output of about 1.2 million tonnes once the campus is running at full capacity. That is broadly equivalent to 8,480 return flights from London Heathrow to New York, using the UN aviation body’s carbon calculator.
The scheme’s electricity appetite is equally striking. At what the company describes as a ‘likely’ 50% load, the campus would use 2.65 billion kilowatt hours a year, which is more than the annual consumption of 1 million UK households, based on Ofgem’s average household figure.
Power would come mainly through a 600MVA connection to the National Grid via Warley substation, requiring major reinforcement works, including a new 400kV substation and an additional 132kV UK Power Networks facility. Full grid connection is expected by 2033.
The proposal lands at a time when ministers are struggling to balance the boom in AI infrastructure with legally binding climate commitments. The government classed datacentres as critical national infrastructure in 2024, placing them alongside utilities and emergency services, and later changed planning rules so developers could seek approval as nationally significant infrastructure projects, bypassing the usual local authority route.
Yet by early 2025 officials were already estimating that datacentres used 2.5% of UK electricity, a figure they expect to quadruple by 2030, while grid operator Neso has warned MPs that connection requests have surged to 72.8GW by 2039.
Campaigners say the Havering plan is a warning of what unchecked expansion could mean for local communities and the wider energy system. Donald Campbell of the tech justice group Foxglove called the projected emissions ‘staggering’ and said the public and environment risk being left to bear the cost of infrastructure built for the world’s richest companies.
North Ockendon Residents Association described the project as a ‘massacre’ of green belt land, while the planning documents say any emissions shortfall could be met through a cash payment to the borough’s carbon offset fund, estimated at about £77.6m. The first consultation closed in April and a revised proposal is due this autumn.
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Inspired by headline at: The Guardian [1]
• This On the wire article was created using Noahwire AI and reviewed by CIBSE Journal’s editorial team
