Proposed World’s Second-Largest Data Center Faces Protests in Scotland

    A proposal has been made to build the world's second-largest data center near the small historic town of Auchertool in Scotland's Fife region. The complex would cover more than 170 acres and would be larger than the town itself. Its planned power capacity is 600 MW. Once completed, the facility would rank second in size only to the Citadel Campus facility in Nevada.    More than 1,600 objections have been submitted against the massive project. Local MP David Torrance said that in his 25-year political career, he had never seen this level of opposition to a local plan. Residents of Airdrie and Larbert are also opposing similar projects. A protest is planned in Edinburgh in early September.    Scotland supplies more than a quarter of the electricity generated in the United Kingdom. Cheap land and a cool climate also attract data center operators to the region. Nevertheless, parliament may impose a moratorium on new facilities and tighten the rules. The government must already be notified about projects with a capacity exceeding 50 MW, while some facilities require an environmental assessment.    Protests are also growing in other parts of the United Kingdom. In Norwich, a petition opposing a 32-acre project requiring 150 MW of power collected 12,000 signatures in two months. A protest petition in Wales has surpassed 4,500 signatures, while one in Northern Ireland has exceeded 5,000. Residents are mainly concerned about these facilities' high electricity and water consumption.    The United Kingdom currently has about 500 active data centers. Germany has 525, while the number in the United States exceeds 3,600. The government wants to increase the number of centers to make the country a leading power in artificial intelligence and has designated them as critical infrastructure. Critics emphasize that the cost of upgrading electricity and water networks will affect household bills and that data centers will be given priority during droughts.