Uk Government Urged To Spark Ai Datacentre Boom In Rural Britain

Businesses are pushing the UK government to encourage an AI datacentre boom in remote areas of Great Britain by offering cheap electricity prices. Tech companies Amazon and OpenAI have paid for a report that calls for the overhaul of the UK’s electricity market, which would split it into different zones so that prices become more expensive in areas where power is in short supply and cheaper in those with ample supplies.

The plan aims to make remote areas such as Scotland a hotspot for AI datacentres due to an abundance of windfarms and low population density. The report claims that this would create new job opportunities beyond south-east England and ensure that windfarms in remote areas do not need to be turned off because of low demand.

The Social Market Foundation (SMF) thinktank has proposed steps to accelerate the rollout of AI datacentres, including fixing planning delays and connecting more low-carbon electricity to the grid at pace. The government is expected to make a decision on how to proceed in the coming months.

However, clean energy companies preparing to spend billions on building new wind and solar farms are concerned that the changes could make projects less profitable and put investments in clean energy at risk, potentially undermining efforts to meet climate targets.