SCOTTISH Greens will force a Holyrood vote to pause all new hyperscale datacentres this week.

There are currently proposals for 27 centres at sites across Scotland making their way through the planning system, and grassroots campaigns have grown in strength as concerns about the massive electricity and water consumption required to run the plants.

Organisations like Action to Protect Rural Scotland have raised the alarm that without a national plan in place, local councils could individually approve proposals that could have a debating cumulative impact on efforts to cut emissions.

Pointing out that if the first 24 alone were approved, they could consume as much as 1.5 times Scotland’s peak electricity demand, Scottish Green MSP Patrick Harvie said: “We will be forcing the Scottish government to make a very simple choice. 

“Will they put a pause on the rush to build hyperscale data centres, or will they continue to allow speculative applications to keep piling up with no national strategy in place?

“The Scottish government has had plenty of time to act and till now has chosen not to.”