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Policypublished

Two Planned English Data Centres Seek Gas Power, With a 4.577m-Tonne Emissions Estimate

The dispute is not over whether the projects need vast power, but whether their eventual operating levels and route to electricity can fit the UK’s climate plans.

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Two Planned English Data Centres Seek Gas Power, With a 4.577m-Tonne Emissions Estimate
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Two planned English data centres could produce 4.577 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year if they run at full capacity—more than ExxonMobil reported from its UK operations in 2023. The estimate comes from campaign group Foxglove and concerns Wapseys Wood and Quest Park, two projects being fast-tracked through the national infrastructure planning system. Together, they are expected to need 1.3 gigawatts of electricity when fully operational. Because connections to the UK grid are delayed, both are seeking on-site gas-fired power stations. That makes the issue bigger than simply how much electricity data centres consume: it is also about whether their power source fits the country’s climate plans. The wider queue is substantial. Three hundred and fifteen data centres are waiting for grid connections, representing 73 gigawatts of demand—nearly twice the UK’s peak winter electricity use. The government says Foxglove’s figure is misleading because it assumes both facilities operate at 100 percent utilisation from day one. Foxglove’s communications head, Tom Hegarty, says that full-utilisation assumption follows standard industry practice, while Friends of the Earth’s Kierra Box says full capacity is a valid test for facilities designed to increase their load. Critics also fear central approval could reduce local scrutiny. A Commons inquiry is examining the environmental impact. The key unresolved questions are whether the gas plants are approved, when grid access arrives, and how intensively the sites actually operate.

Story brief

3 key points

Foxglove’s emissions estimate turns two English data-centre proposals into a test of the UK’s infrastructure and climate policy: Wapseys Wood and Quest Park could require 1.3GW and, if fully utilised, produce 4.577 million tonnes of annual emissions from planned gas-backed power. That figure is modeled rather than an operating forecast, and the government disputes its full-utilisation assumption. Their fast-track...

  1. 01

    The 315-site UK data-centre connection queue represents 73GW of demand, nearly twice peak winter electricity demand.

  2. 02

    Foxglove models 4.577 million tonnes of annual emissions at full utilisation; the government says that assumption is misleading.

  3. 03

    Wapseys Wood and Quest Park are seeking on-site gas generation, making the power source central to their climate impact.

Two planned English data centres are being fast-tracked through a national infrastructure process while seeking on-site gas-fired power stations because grid connections are delayed. Foxglove estimates that, at full operation, Wapseys Wood and Quest Park would emit 4.577 million tonnes of carbon a year—more than ExxonMobil’s reported UK emissions in 2023. The government contests the estimate’s assumption that both sites start at full utilisation.

A capacity problem before either site opens

Foxglove puts the two sites’ combined electricity requirement at 1.3GW when fully operational. The projects are pursuing their own gas generation because of delays joining the electricity grid, making the power source—not only the volume of demand—central to the climate question.

The bottleneck extends well beyond these proposals. There are 315 data centres waiting to connect to the UK grid, representing 73GW of demand—almost twice the country’s peak winter energy demand. That queue helps explain why developers are looking for power outside the normal connection timetable, but it also raises the stakes of each fossil-fuel fallback.

A modeled annual total, not an agreed operating forecast

The 4.577 million-tonne figure is a calculation for fully running facilities, rather than measured output from operating sites. The government called it misleading because it assumes both projects operate at 100% utilisation from day one. Foxglove’s head of communications, Tom Hegarty, said a 100% utilisation assumption follows standard industry practice.

The projects are seeking gas plants, while Foxglove’s full-operation demand estimate supplies the scale of the proposal. Their ramp-up timing and utilisation would determine how closely emissions match Foxglove’s annual estimate. Friends of the Earth campaigner Kierra Box argued that full capacity is a valid level at which to assess the projects because data centres are intended to increase load and run at capacity.

Fast-track status shifts the decision to central government

Wapseys Wood and Quest Park are among the first data-centre projects to enter the nationally significant infrastructure project regime. The process is designed to speed infrastructure delivery by moving decisions from local planning authorities to central government. Critics including Global Action Plan’s Oliver Hayes and former Green party leader Caroline Lucas have raised concerns that this route reduces local scrutiny of gas-powered proposals.

The government says its analysis identifies multiple pathways for rapid data-centre growth to fit within the seventh carbon budget, which sets out how it will reach international climate targets. But the route from a gas-backed, grid-constrained proposal to that outcome remains unsettled. A Commons environmental audit committee inquiry is now examining data centres’ environmental impact, adding a parliamentary forum to a planning decision that will test the government’s position.

The two developers have not added detail to resolve that gap: Wapseys Wood declined to comment, and Quest Park did not respond to a request for comment. The next material questions are whether the projects secure the requested gas generation, how quickly they obtain grid access, and what operating profile they ultimately present to planners.

Sources

  1. theguardian.comTwo planned datacentres will have higher UK carbon emissions than ExxonMobil, analysis finds

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