Scotland’s largest proposed data centres will now have to be brought quickly to the attention of ministers, after the Scottish Government introduced a new notification requirement for developments exceeding 50 megawatts of power capacity.
The direction, issued on 17 August, requires planning authorities to notify Scottish Ministers within seven days of validating an application for a data centre above the 50MW threshold. Ministers say the change is intended to give central government a clearer view of the developing national pipeline and its implications for infrastructure.
It is a material change in oversight, but it is not a moratorium, does not transfer every large data-centre decision automatically to ministers, and does not itself require every proposed data centre to undergo an Environmental Impact Assessment. Nor does the new notification direction cover developments of 50MW or below.
Scotland is trying to understand the cumulative consequences of a sector which has expanded faster than the national planning framework anticipated.
Only two months ago, the Scottish Government told Parliament that it had not undertaken a formal national assessment of the climate impact of hyperscale data centres. Ministers said they were instead working with the National Energy System Operator, SEPA, Scottish Water, councils and industry to understand combined demands for electricity and water, environmental effects and possible economic benefits.
The latest direction is therefore partly an information-gathering measure.
It allows ministers to see qualifying applications as they enter the planning system rather than relying upon a fragmented picture assembled from Scotland’s individual planning authorities.
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre described the purpose as strategic oversight of the application pipeline and its wider infrastructure implications. Until now, councils have largely been considering individual developments within the normal planning system, even though the cumulative electricity demand of several projects may extend far beyond the boundary of any one council.
That is the central planning problem.
A local authority can assess the land, buildings, transport implications and environmental effects of a particular proposal. It is considerably harder for it to determine what happens when several large facilities in different council areas seek grid connections, water supplies and supporting infrastructure at roughly the same time.
The scale being discussed is substantial.
During a Scottish Parliament debate in June, Alan Brown MSP said 24 data centres were proposed across Scotland. Laura Moodie MSP said six of them were in the South Scotland region. A separate parliamentary motion claimed the proposals could collectively require at least 6,000MW of power if all were developed. Those figures were raised by MSPs rather than independently established by the Scottish Government, and ministers cautioned that a number of projects were speculative and might never reach construction.
A planning pipeline is not the same thing as built capacity.
But speculative applications still create a planning problem when government does not yet have a complete national picture of what is being proposed, where it would connect and what infrastructure would be required if even part of the pipeline proceeded.
The 50MW threshold improves that picture without resolving it.
Projects below that level are outside the new notification requirement. A number of smaller facilities in one area could therefore create cumulative infrastructure demands without individually triggering the direction.
The direction also should not be confused with the separate 50MW threshold used in electricity-generation law. Under the Electricity Act 1989, Scottish Ministers generally determine applications for onshore generating stations exceeding 50MW. Data centres consume electricity rather than generate it, and the new data-centre direction operates through the planning system for a different purpose.
Alongside the national notification requirement, ministers have intervened directly in three individual cases.
The Scottish Government has recalled an appeal concerning a proposed green data centre at Redheughs Avenue in Edinburgh. That means ministers, rather than an appointed Reporter, will take the final decision after receiving the Reporter’s recommendation.
It has also directed that Environmental Impact Assessments be undertaken for proposed data-centre developments at Wester Hermiston in Edinburgh and Auchtertool in Fife.
Those interventions show that ministers are prepared to use existing planning powers where they consider additional scrutiny necessary. They do not establish a blanket national EIA requirement for the sector.
The question of what constitutes a “green data centre” also remains unresolved.
National Planning Framework 4 supports the development of green data centres, but MSPs and councils have repeatedly asked how that term should be defined. Ministers have referred to renewable electricity, energy efficiency, lower water consumption and opportunities to reuse waste heat as relevant considerations, while acknowledging that planning authorities have been making those judgments case by case.
That leaves considerable discretion at local level.
A project can promise renewable electricity, for example, while still requiring a substantial grid connection. It may use efficient cooling technology while consuming large amounts of power overall. Backup generation can introduce separate questions about emissions and local air quality. Heat recovery may offer a public benefit, but only where there is somewhere practical for that heat to go.
The Scottish Government has also said community wealth building should form part of its consideration of the sector.
That raises another question which cannot be answered by megawatts alone: how much of the economic value remains in the communities carrying the infrastructure?
Data centres can involve very large capital investment, but the number of permanent jobs after construction can be considerably smaller than the construction workforce. The planning system therefore has to distinguish headline investment from lasting employment, local procurement, business-rate income, grid consequences and any public infrastructure required to support a site.
Ministers rejected calls earlier this summer for an immediate moratorium while those questions were examined. The government position has instead moved towards greater central visibility and selective intervention.
That is a more active position than Scotland had at the beginning of the summer, when ministers were still saying that no sector-specific planning guidance or regulatory changes were proposed and that the need for them would remain under review.
The new direction closes one obvious information gap. From now on, ministers should know quickly when a data-centre application above 50MW enters the Scottish planning system.
It does not yet answer the larger questions the pipeline has exposed: what cumulative electricity demand Scotland is prepared to accommodate, whether water and grid capacity should influence where projects are located, what minimum public benefit should be expected, how a green data centre should be defined, and whether developments below 50MW require similar national scrutiny.
Those are no longer theoretical questions. Scotland now has a mechanism for counting its biggest proposals. The harder task is deciding how many, where, and on what terms.
Sources
Scottish Government — Data Centre Planning Direction, 17 August 2026.
Scottish Government: Data Centre Planning Direction
Scottish Parliament Information Centre — Data Centres, updated 17 August 2026.
SPICe: Data Centres
Scottish Parliament — Official Report, 24 June 2026: Hyperscale Data Centres.
Scottish Parliament: 24 June 2026 Official Report
Scottish Parliament — S7M-00419: Recognising Concerns Over Hyperscale Data Centre Plans, 19 June 2026.
Scottish Parliament: S7M-00419
Scottish Parliament — Official Report, First Minister’s Questions, 18 June 2026.
Scottish Parliament: 18 June 2026 Official Report
Scottish Parliament — Written Answer S7W-01220, answered 22 July 2026.
Scottish Parliament: Data Centre Planning Guidance Answer
Scottish Government — Onshore Electricity Generation: Electricity Act Threshold Consultation.
Scottish Government: Electricity Act Threshold Consultation
