East Havering Datacentre Would Emit 1.2 Million Tonnes of CO2e a Year as UK AI Power Demand Surges
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 21
East Havering Datacentre Would Emit 1.2 Million Tonnes of CO2e a Year as UK AI Power Demand Surges
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 21
Summary
Planning documents show the proposed East Havering Data Centre Campus in north Ockendon would emit 1.2 million tonnes of CO2e a year once fully operational, or more than 72 million tonnes over 60 years.
Digital Reef’s £14.7 billion scheme would use 218 hectares of London green belt and, at a likely 50% load, consume 2.65 billion kWh a year—enough to match demand from more than 1 million UK households.
A 600MVA grid connection via Warley substation is planned, with new 400kV and 132kV substations needed before a full connection expected by 2033; local residents have called the farmland loss a “massacre.”
Guardian analysis said the project has the highest disclosed emissions among proposed UK datacentres, with annual emissions roughly equal to 26,795 London-New York flights and nearly 1% of the UK’s carbon budget by 2038.
The proposal lands as Britain pushes AI infrastructure after classing datacentres as critical national infrastructure, even as officials expect their electricity use to quadruple by 2030 and developers seek 72.8GW of grid connections by 2039.