As someone who has had more mega (for their time) data centres within his bailiwick than he cares to remember, I can authoritatively say there is no upside to having this thing in the UK. Or indeed anywhere on the planet.
Especially when the bubble (AI, debt, whatever, choose your favourite bubble) bursts.
I agree.
According to the article the datacentre developers have requested 72.8GW of electricity connections by 2039 which is nearly 60% more than the UK’s peak power demand last year. This would mean that in 13yrs time the National Grid would have to have 2.5 times the capacity than at present.
I wonder who would end up paying for the additional power stations and all the additional distribution network that would be required.
They can eff off somewhere else.
Especially as the likely number of jobs created is probably about 12.
Twelve pimply youths on roller skates swapping out failed components.
Very likely.
Probably an opening negotiating position.
The trouble is, Havering is not a wealthy borough, so might be tempted. Then there’s always the likelihood of a bung from the developer which can be dressed up as some sort of “planning gain” or even completely unofficial.
I understand that the majority of the electricity required is not for the computers themselves, but for cooling the building in which they are housed.
The buildings have no windows as they are all temperature controlled, so how about building them underground with houses on the top, which in winter could be heated by the waste heat from the datacentre. At least that would be some mitigation of the carbon footprint. Make it a block of flats and it could go some way towards easing the housing shortage.
There needs to be more ‘joined up’ thinking in these matters.
Use the “waste” heat to power turbines and generate electricity.
Perpetual motion? 
As in Scandinavia, especially Finland, must heat xxx number of homes or no building. Unfortunately there is no backbone in the UK any longer only brown envelopes and gifted holidays etc.
Data centres have always been struggling to get enough power into the buildings. I worked for Deutsche Bank at a data centre in Hayes and the reason we left that location was ultimately the inability to increase the power coming in - we had a whole floor that could have been a server room but due to the power issues we had to leave it empty. The same for Reuters, always renewing the infrastructure at their former data centre in Blackwall yard to get more capacity onto the server room floors. It’s going to be an on going issue especially with the mega data centres being thrown up at the moment all in the name of ‘AI’ … i expect it to end in tears and there will be vacant buildings within a few years.
Result!
EdF are going to make so much money selling electricity to the UK, they’ll be able to drop the prices of French tarrifs.
Thats the second laugh I’ve had this morning 
Data Centres especially AI data centres are the wild west right now
The big names at least have a plan and know how they’ll pay for it and monetise it.
But there’s a layer below. Unsuccessful Bitcoin miners are suddenly becoming AI companies (we have power and buildings) - property companies are becoming AI landlords (our warehouse looks like a data centre) - it works in the principle if you stick AI in the name and talk fast enough there’s enough greed in the retail stock market that people will buy your shares - your share price goes up - but these chancers are making applications based on hope - and you need the application to boost your share price.
Tulip mania?
The very same.
Who needs the data centres, it’s us lot using the internet. Who wants to go back to writing letters, browsing through catalogs and sending a cheque in the post to pay our bills. Like it or not they develop the capability and we become hooked on it. Every time we Google for some information it’s the equivalent to boiling the kettle for a cup of tea.
We are all responsible, if we don’t want them don’t use them.
Ai uses a lot more and so does crypto mining etc than looking something up. The major point apart from the rich getting ever richer by getting rid of staff and using Ai, if you are going to allow the building of the data centre then the energy used must not got straight out into the environment (see 2026/27) for hot weather but must be used to supply homes, it’s crazy that people heat water with electricity when there is solar, waste heat from A/C and data centres that can supply provided, like Scandinavian countries you plan properly.
As @Corona has more eloquently said, this is nonsense. These vast data centres that are suddenly desperately needed across the globe and are destroying people’s lives are not due to normal internet traffic but AI, crypto and other niche uses.
Yes, that I accept. But like everything else we don’t know when to stop. We started with bows and arrows but look where we’ve ended up.
Putting these data centres below ground could be a good idea, at least we wouldn’t have to look at them, and as has been suggested the energy could be used to heat homes, but that would increase costs and who would pay for that? They won’t even bury electricity cables, they’d rather put them on pylons because it’s cheaper. You will never see a Scandinavian idea used in the UK (except IKEA) because the powers that be are too short sighted.
Yes lots of little drones.
The powers at be dance to the tune of the rich funders, they dont want to spend too much of their money building a data centre so they add more strain on the public purse for their gain. If Finland can do so can we.
There is a blue print for district heating of the whitehall estate. From info it was to be powered by effluent! Plenty of that at one end of Whitehall! It was a block that I could not get around the replacement of aged A/C with newer reversable heat pumps.