Plans for a massive “hyperscale” data centre on the outskirts of London have sparked alarm over its projected carbon footprint, with documents indicating it could generate more than a million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually — roughly equal to 8,480 London-to-New York flights.
The proposed East Havering Data Centre Campus, located in North Ockendon, would occupy 218 hectares of protected green belt land and, if approved by the local council, become one of Europe’s largest facilities, housing servers for artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Its developer, Digital Reef, has promoted the project as a chance to build a sustainable data centre campus for the future. Yet its own planning application concedes the development does not fit with a science-based 1.5C climate trajectory or the UK’s net zero 2050 commitment.
According to the application, the £14.7bn project would produce more than 72 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over its projected 60-year lifespan, reaching 1.2 million tonnes per year once fully operational. An analysis by The Guardian of planning documents for dozens of proposed UK data centres found the East Havering scheme would have the highest disclosed emissions of any project.
Donald Campbell, advocacy director at the tech justice non-profit Foxglove, described the projections as staggering and a major threat to UK decarbonisation efforts. He warned the campus would also be a significant drain on resources needed by homes and other businesses. The facility would use about 2.65 billion kWh of electricity per year at a likely 50% load, equivalent to the needs of more than one million UK households, according to the documents. It would be powered primarily through a 600MVA connection to the National Grid via the nearby Warley substation, requiring major upgrades including a new 400kV substation expected to be completed by 2033.
Local residents have reacted with outrage. A spokesperson for the North Ockendon Residents Association called the plan a “massacre” of green belt land, highlighting the loss of crop-producing farmland and wildlife habitats, as well as pollution costs they say are being overlooked. The controversy comes as the government has designated data centres as “critical national infrastructure” and changed planning rules to allow large projects to bypass local authorities and seek approval directly from ministers. Data centre developers have requested grid connections totalling 72.8GW by 2039, according to the UK grid operator Neso — nearly 60% more than the country’s peak power demand last year.
Campbell said the government must take concrete action to ensure the public and environment do not bear the social and environmental costs of data centres, arguing that the wealthiest companies in the world should be required to pay. The developer has suggested any shortfall in meeting zero-carbon targets would be covered by a cash payment of about £77.6m to the borough’s carbon offset fund. But Campbell maintained developers should at minimum build enough additional renewable generation and storage to power their facilities, rather than plugging into the grid and draining power needed elsewhere.
A first consultation on the scheme closed in April, with a revised proposal expected for further public consultation in the autumn. Councillor Keith Prince, leader of Havering council, said it would be wrong to comment before the local planning authority makes its decision. Digital Reef did not respond to a request for comment.