Proposed London datacentre ‘incompatible’ with net zero with 1m-tonne carbon footprint
Saturday, 22 August 2026
Warm-up
- How often do you think about the energy behind your online life?
- When should new building plans be stopped for environmental reasons?
- Who should decide on big infrastructure: local or national authorities?
Vocabulary
- hyperscale
- extremely large in capacity, built to handle vast computing loads
- green belt
- protected land around cities where development is tightly controlled
- substation
- a facility that transforms and distributes electricity on the grid
- lifespan
- the period something is expected to operate or exist
- designate
- to officially give a special status or role to something
- bypass
- to avoid a normal process or authority and go another way
- trajectory
- a path of change over time towards a target or goal
- footprint
- the total amount of carbon emissions caused by an activity
Reading
Planning papers say the East Havering Data Centre Campus (EHDCC) in North Ockendon would be one of Europe’s biggest hyperscale sites. What alarms critics is the projected 1.2m tonnes of CO₂e each year once fully running, and about 72m tonnes over a 60‑year lifespan. Digital Reef, the £14.7bn developer, calls it “a unique opportunity”, yet its filing admits the plan does not align with a 1.5C‑compatible trajectory to net zero by 2050.
The scheme would use 218 hectares of green belt to host AI and cloud servers. At a likely 50% load, electricity use would reach 2.65bn kWh a year, equal to demand from more than 1m average UK homes. The power need would trigger grid upgrades: a 600MVA link via the Warley substation and new 400kV and 132kV facilities, with full connection expected by 2033. The annual footprint has also been equated to 8,480 Heathrow–JFK flights.
Local residents warn of lost habitats and farmland, while campaigners call the emissions staggering. Policy has shifted: in 2024 the UK government designated datacentres as critical national infrastructure, and in January it let some apply as nationally significant projects to bypass local planning and seek approval directly from central government.
Comprehension
- Where would the EHDCC be built, and what type of site is planned?
- What annual and lifetime emissions are projected for the campus?
- How much electricity would it use at 50% load, and what is that equal to?
- What grid works are planned to supply the site, and by when?
- What policy changes in 2024 and January affected datacentre approvals?
Grammar focus
Adding emphasis - cleft sentences
Use a cleft sentence (It + be + X + that/who) to emphasise one part of a sentence. The emphasised part goes after "be": It was X that/who ... (Examples constructed.)
- It was the projected 1.2m tonnes that alarmed critics.
- It was local residents who warned of lost habitats.
Grammar exercise
Circle the correct option in each sentence.
- It was the projected 1.2m tonnes (that / what) worried critics.
- It was the green belt land (what / that) the scheme would use.
- It was the energy demand (that / what) would trigger upgrades.
- It was local residents (that / who) warned of lost habitats.
- It was the 600MVA link (that / what) was expected by 2033.
Discussion
- Should green belt rules bend for major datacentre projects? Why or why not?
- What conditions would bring a datacentre closer to net zero?
- Is it acceptable to expand the grid mainly for private tech demand?
- Who should have final say on sites like this, and why?
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