Written Question·Department for Energy Security and Net Zero·UIN 26897

Data Centres: Planning

Tabled: 28 January 2025
Answered: 5 February 2025

Question

Nick Timothy

Conservative — West Suffolk

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of building new data centres on (a) sites of decommissioned power stations and (b) other brownfield sites.

Answer

Michael Shanks
The suitability of any site for a data centre depends on a number of factors including grid capacity, state of grid infrastructure and availability of data connectivity. Future AI Growth Zones will be selected taking into account these factors.