“What do we need for development of the data centre industry? Certainty.”

Emma Fryer, director of public policy for Europe at CyrusOne, wants to see assurances about planning (and connections, too – see below) and believes the data centre sector would benefit from streamlined permitting processes. 

Fryer, who is speaking at the inaugural Data Centre: Demand conference, expands on the point: “It would be good to see certainty in terms of outcomes, permitting timelines, and planning rules.” She says that the 12-18-month permitting timeframe is often due to an application sitting unreviewed on a desk. “What we want to see is an accelerated process.”

She emphasises that speeding up does not mean a less stringent approach. “We don’t have a problem with rigour; we have a problem with delay. By the time you get consent, the technology’s moved on.”

We caught up with Emma to find out more about the data centre policy landscape ahead of her appearance at Data Centre: Demand.  

Here are some of the highlights.

1. Emma, what do you see as some of the principal blockers to development of data centres in the UK?

Access to power in a timely and predictable manner. The difficulty we face is the lack of accountability from grid operators in delivering on the commitments they have made. For example, we have asked for power connections and been told we will get them in 2027, and then told the connection isn’t coming until 2031. If you’ve invested based on a project starting to deliver ROI in 2028, that’s not great news.

Any lack of certainty in terms of these projects is a threat. But I would say the biggest lack of certainty is around the timely delivery of power when we need it.

2. How does the price of electricity in Britain influence this?

How much of a problem it is depends on the locational attributes of the data centre workload. AI training models can be done anywhere and will chase the lowest cost of power. Why would location-agnostic workloads come to the UK when power prices are four times that of the US? The answer is they won’t.

On the other hand, cloud computing needs to be where it needs to be. Under those circumstances, the energy costs are not necessarily a barrier to entry. When it comes to inference AI, we think locationally it is likely to be situated close to populations, which means there is significant scope for growth in Britain.  

3. Do you think data centres genuinely have the potential to rejuvenate parts of country?

We are working on two new sites in London, one in Southall and the other in Iver, Buckinghamshire. The latter was technically on greenbelt, but the land was actually shockingly degraded and had been used for testing vehicles and crushing concrete, and a part of it was landfill. We are cleaning it up and constructing a data centre that is sensitive to the semi-rural landscape aesthetics.

In Southall, we have designed a landmark data centre that aims to enhance the cityscape on the site of a factory that has been derelict since 2004. That’s been welcomed by the local authority, which is also excited about the potential of reuse of heat from the data centre. We are also planning to deliver 3,500 square metres of affordable office space including a dedicated training centre. Both projects are good examples of regeneration and how developers can build appropriately in the public realm.

When it comes to regeneration, data centres create a huge breadth of jobs. A company that remediates contaminated land will be able to move from project to project, because the sector is so buoyant. That also means careers in the data centre industry are future-proofed, at least in the medium term.

4. So it’s important to consider the entire supply chain, not just the staffing of the centre itself?

Yes. Local authorities tend to think of data centres as a replacement for manufacturing facilities or retail. But what they actually are is infrastructure, in the same way that a road or reservoir is infrastructure. They employ a huge number of people while being built, and fewer when operational.

But the end goal is to facilitate the broader economy.

5. Data centres are often criticised for their environmental impact. What is CyrusOne doing to mitigate this?

We our exceeding our biodiversity net gain targets with the data centres we are building in London. At the Iver, Buckinghamshire site, there is almost 70% net gain, which is pretty remarkable. We also source 100% of our electricity from renewable sources across our European portfolio – we have done since 2021.  

Water use is contentious, of course. But the use of water to cool a data centre is not an operational necessity, it’s a technological choice: our designs are closed loop systems that consume no water for cooling. Indeed, this is true for most data centres in Europe. It is like a domestic central heating circuit, once you’ve filled up the system, that’s it.

By contrast, evaporative systems do consume water as a function of cooling, but they are more energy efficient. There is no doubt there is room for improvement, as in any industry. But commentators have applied the evaporative cooling stats to all data centres assuming everyone uses the same system.