Britain’s bid to establish itself as a global artificial intelligence powerhouse is facing a direct confrontation with its legally binding climate commitments after planning documents revealed the country’s first “nationally significant” data center would run on gas rather than clean energy.
The SDC Capital Partners-backed £2bn Wapseys Wood project in Buckinghamshire would consist of up to three hyperscale data center buildings, each consuming up to 100 megawatts of electricity. Crucially, it would also have an on-site gas turbine power generation center capable of between 270 and 350 megawatts, which the developers describe in filings as necessary to provide a “robust and reliable power supply.”
The scheme is the first data center proposal to be accepted for consideration under the Government’s nationally significant infrastructure regime. This is a designation that leaves the final decision to communities secretary Steve Reed rather than the local authority. If approved, the development would be one of the ten largest sites of its kind in the UK. Proponents claim the development would create 400 jobs and meet about 5 percent of domestic computing needs over the next five years.
The Wapseys Wood dispute reflects a wider bottleneck that is changing the economics of Britain’s digital infrastructure. As grid connection queues drag on for years, developers are increasingly foregoing the electricity grid and turning instead to on-site generation or the gas grid.
Figures from Future Energy Networks, the industry association that represents pipeline operators, show 113 applications have been submitted by data center developers in the past two years, with requests in 2025 about three times higher than last year. Seven of these applications have already concluded connection agreements. If each of them continued, together they would use enough gas to heat 1.3 million homes.
Toby Perkins, the Labor MP and chairman of the environmental audit committee, warned that the scale of the claim deserves serious political attention. “The fact that a small number of centers could have the same energy needs as millions of homes should give us pause,” he said. “Data centers may play an important role in growing our economy, but we should be cautious about approving projects that jeopardize the transition to net zero emissions.”
Critics argue that Wapseys Wood is merely the most visible example of an emerging trend. Donald Campbell, director of advocacy at Foxglove, a nonprofit that advocates for more responsible technology policies, said the developers made no effort to portray the project as environmentally friendly. He warned that “climate pollution from Big Tech will skyrocket” if the majority of pending gas grid applications are approved.
The shift reflects developments in the United States, where hyperscalers have moved aggressively to secure their own generation. Meta is building seven new natural gas power plants to power its Hyperion campus in Louisiana, a site that could ultimately use up to 5 gigawatts. Microsoft, meanwhile, is working on plans for a gas-fired power plant in West Texas of a similar size.
The carbon impact for the UK is significant. Oliver Hayes, head of policy and campaigns at Global Action Plan, estimated that the Wapseys Wood turbine alone could emit around half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, compared to the UK’s total emissions of 367 million tonnes. “Tech bosses claim lack of network connectivity threatens their AI gold rush,” he said. “But ministers must not allow them to run for petrol instead.”
Under current planning rules, any planned new gas power plant must demonstrate a credible path to decarbonization. The developers of Wapseys Wood have hinted at a future switch to clean-burning hydrogen. Nevertheless, industry experts are skeptical as to whether the technology will be commercially viable in the required time frame. Marten Ford, consulting project manager at Aurora Energy Research, said that while the current test focuses on technical readiness, it does not address cost competitiveness. “Given current market conditions, a short-term switch to hydrogen is unlikely, with feasibility more likely later in the 2030s,” he said.
A spokesman for the Wapseys Wood project defended the proposal, saying it met “an urgent need for new data centers in the UK” and would deliver significant economic, employment and environmental benefits. He stressed that the program is still in the pre-application phase and that SDC Capital Partners will continue to engage with the local community, including through a second round of public consultations later this year.
The government, for its part, insisted that AI expansion and climate goals could be reconciled. “Data centers are critical to driving growth and AI is increasingly part of the high-tech solutions that will help us solve environmental problems,” a spokesperson said, adding that the AI Energy Council is actively seeking investment in new clean energy sources and that ministers are working to accelerate grid connection and reduce energy costs for eligible projects.
There is a lot at stake in this debate for the UK’s small and medium-sized technology companies. Cheap, abundant computing capacity is increasingly the raw material for corporate innovation, and delays in the creation of new infrastructure risk AI workloads being moved offshore. But a push for gas, if repeated across the pipeline of upcoming projects, could burden the UK with a new generation of carbon-emitting assets, just as other sectors are being asked to decarbonise quickly. When the Wapseys Wood decision lands on Steve Reed’s desk, it will provide the first indication of how Whitehall plans to balance these competing needs.
