As the data center industry grows, the English countryside becomes a battleground

EBATTS LANGLEY, England — Originally built to store the produce of peasant farmers, the Tithe Barn on the edge of the English village of Abbots Langley has been converted into homes that preserve its centuries-old history. Now its residents are fighting to stop the development next door, which represents the future.

A proposal to build a data center in the field across the road was rejected by local authorities due to fierce resistance from the villagers. But he is getting a second chance from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government, which is pushing reforms to boost economic growth after his Labor party won an election in July.

Residents of Abbots Langley, 18 miles (30 kilometers) north-west of London, are concerned the facility will strain local resources and create noise and traffic that will damage the character of the quiet village of just over 20,000 people. Just off the main street is a 12th-century church with a stone tower, and further down the road is a picturesque round yard of rustic thatched cottages, which used to be a farmhouse modeled after one built for Queen Marie Antoinette of France .

“It’s just terribly inappropriate,” said Stuart Lewis, 70, who lives in one of the converted houses in the 600-year-old Tithe Barn. “I think any reasonable person anywhere would say, ‘Wait, they want a data center?’ This is not the place for that.”

As the artificial intelligence boom fuels demand for cloud computing from server farms around the world, such projects pit business considerations against national priorities and local interests.

Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner took part in hearing appeals filed by developers of three data center projects after they were rejected by local authorities, taking the decision out of the hands of city planners. These proposals include Abbots Langley and two projects in Buckinghamshire, which is located west of London. The first decision is expected by January.

The projects are controversial because the data centers will be built on “green belt” land that has been set aside to prevent urbanization. Reiner wants to touch the green belt for development, saying that many of them are of poor quality. One proposed project in Buckinghamshire, for example, involves redeveloping an industrial park next to a busy thoroughfare.

“Although it is officially a green belt area, there is nothing ‘green’ about the site today,” said Stephen Bird, global head of data centers at Knight Frank, the real estate consultancy working on the project.

“It’s really an eyesore that’s very visible from the M25,” he said.

Greystoke, the company behind the Abbots Langley center and a second project in Buckinghamshire to be built on a former landfill site, did not respond to requests for comment. In online video for Abbots of LangleyA company representative says, “We did a comprehensive site search and this one is the best.” At the same time, it is not specified which companies may use the center.

The British government is making data centers a key element of its economic growth plans, deeming them “critical national infrastructure” to give businesses the confidence to invest in them. Starmer announced deals for new centers, including a £10 billion ($13 billion) investment from a private equity firm Blackstone to build Europe’s largest AI data center in North East England.

The land for the Abbots Langley data center is currently used for horse grazing. On the other two sides, it is bordered by a cluster of affordable housing and a highway.

Greystoke’s plans to build two large buildings totaling 84,000 square meters (904,00 square feet) and up to 20 meters (66 feet) high have alarmed Lewis and other villagers, who are concerned it will overshadow everything nearby.

They also question Greystoke’s promise to create up to 260 jobs.

“Everything will be automated, so they won’t need people,” said technical consultant Jennifer Stirup, 51, who lives in the area.

Not everyone in the village is against it.

Retiree Brian Power says he would welcome the data center, believing it would benefit the area in the same way another major project at the other end of the village, Warner Bros. Studio tour with Harry Potter exhibition.

“It will bring jobs, whatever. It will be good. yes no problem Because if he doesn’t come, he’ll go somewhere else,” Power, 56, said.

One of the biggest concerns about data centers is their environmental impact, especially the huge amount of electricity they require. Greystoke says the facility will consume 96 megawatts of “IT load”. But James Felstead, director of a renewable energy company and a neighbor of Lewis, said the area’s electricity grid would not be able to handle that extra demand.

This problem is reflected across Europe, where demand for data center electricity is expected to triple by the end of the decade, according to consultancy McKinsey. While the AI-powered data boom has prompted Google, Amazon and Microsoft to turn to them nuclear energy as a clean energy source, concerns about their environmental footprint have already raised tensions about data centers elsewhere.

Google was forced to stop plans in September for a $200 million data center in Chile’s capital, Santiago, after community complaints about potential water and energy use.

In Ireland, where many Silicon Valley companies have their European headquarters, a network operator has temporarily suspended new data centers around Dublin until 2028 over concerns that they use too much electricity.

A massive data center project in northern Virginia won by a small margin county approval last year, amid strong opposition from residents concerned about its environmental impact. Other locations such as Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Singapore have imposed different restrictions on data centers.

Public awareness of the industry is still low, but “people are increasingly aware that these data centers are quite problematic,” said Sebastien Lehuede, a lecturer in ethics, AI and society at King’s College London, who studied the Google case in Chile.

As awareness grows about their environmental impact, Lehuede said, “I’m sure we’ll have more pushback from different communities.”