This column appears as part of the Winds of Change newsletter.

Another month, another multi-billion pound giant data centre announcement, this one at Blackdog, north of Aberdeen. And each time the biggest question we need to ask is where the energy is going to come from?

At Blackdog two sources for the 'multi-giga-watt' power it may need are being discussed across the media. One is offshore wind, the other (not proposed by the developers themselves) whether it may need gas generation on site. Both raise questions around what mix of technology, AI and energy we want to see in a future Scotland.

That renewables are necessary at Blackdog has been made clear by Steven McGarva, managing director of developer Ashfield Land, who described data centres as “power hungry” and Blackdog as “inextricably linked to Scotland’s renewable energy rollout.”

Henry Sutton, director of TechRE, a partner in the project also extolled, “It has access to three gigawatts of renewably generated wind energy, significant grid connections and the ability to bring international subsea cables straight to its door.”

This, he described, “makes it attractive to the world’s biggest AI names looking to develop large data centre campuses that are well connected globally, have lots of redundant power available, and a desire to utilise renewable energy.”

Dr Kat Jones of Action to Protect Rural Scotland, however, pointed out: "The developers of these hyperscale data centres know that they cannot run on renewables alone........

© Herald Scotland