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

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.