The House | Fears that data centres will hog energy are overdone

4 min read1 hr

The British people have a proud history when it comes to inventing and embracing new technologies. With support of the great people, towns and villages of Lanarkshire, we led the way in the industrial revolution by harnessing the power of steam.

We transformed the way people around the world communicate with the electric telegraph, the telephone and the fax machine. And we helped rewire the planet through Tim Berners-Lee’s brilliant conception of the world wide web.

Now we are in the age of a new general purpose technology: artificial intelligence. AI is in its infancy, but it is already transforming how we live, earn and learn.

It is leading to the faster diagnosis of medical conditions; enabling scientists to accelerate the development of new drugs; and helping to speed up planning, reduce red tape and free up the time of public servants so they can focus more on delivering for people and less on administrative duties.

Nobody denies that AI also poses challenges.

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There are concerns, for instance, about security, the energy and water consumption required for data centres, the impact on some areas of the labour market and the ethics of agentic AI where computers act without human supervision.

These concerns should not be dismissed but nor should they be used as reasons to turn our back on AI and decide we want to opt out of the future. Indeed, to take such a course would be a disservice to this country, our communities and our workforce. It would be to deny constituencies such as Airdrie and Shotts the opportunity to benefit from the jobs, prosperity and enterprise that AI can bring.

Colleagues in Parliament who are sceptical about AI should visit Lanarkshire to see the work that has already started on the new AI growth zone. They will see an area that was at the heart of the industrial revolution now proud to be at the centre of the technological revolution. They will see this investment has also brought hope to a region whose potential, ignored for so long under the Tories, has finally been recognised by this government.

The Lanarkshire AI growth zone will create 3,400 jobs, bring £8bn of investment and comes with a £500m community fund.

AI offers the potential to reindustrialise the areas where deindustrialisation hurt most. It unlocks the skills and potential of companies like DataVita in my constituency, encourages clusters of firms in areas such as medical research to innovate, and supports local economic growth by bringing local young people into secure employment and investing in local community projects.

This is far more than just a large black box. By working with local leaders, businesses, colleges and universities, we can create a tech eco-system built around the powerful resource of computing power.

Data centres are the foundation on which we build the businesses and jobs of the future. And it is no accident that many of the new AI growth zones, such as Blyth in the North East, South Wales and Lanarkshire, are in former industrial areas. Like the mills and furnaces, data centres rely on two major commodities: power and water.

There are legitimate questions to ask about the amount of energy use and the impact on the environment. The ambition is for the Lanarkshire growth zone to be primarily powered by renewables by 2030, while surplus heat from the data centre could be used to heat a new local hospital and agricultural greenhouses.

Anyone who is ambitious about the future of the UK should share the government’s ambition to remain at the forefront of the AI revolution.

Without the computational power provided by data centres, we will not be able to seize the innovation, jobs and wealth that flow from this new technology. We would not just be turning our backs on the future – we would be rejecting hope and opportunity. 

Kenneth Stevenson is Labour MP for Aidrie and Shotts