As one of the hottest and driest summers in living memory finally wanes drought conditions remain. This is just one reason behind the first ever legal challenge to a planned hyperscale digital storage facility.
With 477 data centres currently operating across Britain, current estimates suggest we’re using 10billion litres of water each year. Between 1.8 and 12 litres of water goes on AI alone per kilowatt hour of energy use.
Nevertheless, according to BBC News plans are now in place to increase the number of data centres by almost one-fifth, with around 100 new facilities set to be built int he next five years as per research by Barbour ABI. Many are still only planning documents, but given the continued rise in use of AI across the public and private sector, there’s clearly a strong argument for a substantial proportion of these falling under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure category of projects, effectively sidelining many of the powers local governments have to veto problematic developments.
There may be some hope on the horizon, though. Yesterday, 21st August 2025, the independent non-profit organisation and ‘fair tech’ advocate Foxglove launched the first ever legal challenge against a ‘hyperscale’ data centre. Working in partnership with Global Action Plan, the appeal cites Section 288 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and has now been issued to the Secretary of State and all parties involved in the process.
The proposed facility at Woodlands Park in Buckinghamshire would run to 90MW and be located in a corner of England which is already home to a number of similar sites. The tendency to ‘cluster’ technology is as logical for logistics as it is damaging to the environment, leading to incredibly high demand on resources in a small area. Worse still, this particular part of the country is in a region fast becoming accustomed to worryingly dry and hot summers, leading to water supply shortages and a big strain on nearby ecosystems.
Putting it into context, Thames Water gauges hyperscale data centres use anywhere between 4 and 19million litres of water per day, on average. Incredibly, the would-be operator, Greystoke, has claimed it would not use any water to cool the infrastructure — even though this is an essential process and the local water supplier, Affinity, has responded twice to this effect within the consultation. Neither of these submissions have been published to date.
Emissions and energy are also a key causes for concern. Despite this, Foxglove reports that the letter written by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to push through and rubber-stamp the new operation only contained one line relating to environmental impact. This was used to deny the need for an Environmental Impact Assessment due to the National Grid connection. This type of survey has still not ben carried out, and as analysis shows, the localised energy source — Ivor Power Station — is a substation incapable of actually producing electricity. This means should he proposal be realised, demands for power would compete with residents and potentially lead to higher energy prices.
You can read full detail of the Foxglove appeal here.
More Energy:
Hydrotreated vegetable oil, battery energy storage will power onshore wind boom