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Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 23 April 2025

Debate

Artificial Intelligence: Emissions

Contribution

My Lords, I thank the right reverend Prelate for bringing this up. As he has pointed out, and as has been mentioned in two or three questions already, these AI data centres are extraordinarily energy hungry. We think that, on a site with a perimeter similar to that of a call centre, a data centre could use 25 times more energy. So the Minister must explain how he thinks the UK can fully capitalise on this 21st-century opportunity with the most expensive energy. In fact, to pick up my noble friend’s point, our industrial electricity is actually five times more expensive than in the US and seven times more than in China. Could the Minister please work out whether this is just an academic question? We are unlikely to see many AI data centres with the level of energy prices that we have at the moment.

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