Data Centres: Energy and Water Consumption

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Excerpts

Tuesday 8th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston (CB)]

My Lords—

[Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent) (Lab)]

My Lords, there is time to hear from both noble Lords. We will start with the Labour Party.

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I have given answers on the data centres. The broader question of AI has been looked at by a number of publications, including recently in the journal Nature, which looked at the overall energy consumption by AI and the overall potential energy reduction by the application of AI across industries. It turned out to be slightly net positive for energy. The noble Viscount is right that energy consumption is a major area to think about. There are new chips that are reducing energy consumption by a thousandfold and new approaches to machine learning that can reduce it. It is high on the list of concerns, and that is why the AI Energy Council has formed a sustainability working group.

[Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston (CB)]

My Lords, in the light of the National Preparedness Commission report and the energy requirement of the AI data centres, is the Minister satisfied that this is not undermining our energy systems’ resilience?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The latest data suggests that it is about 2.5% of total energy consumption. That will increase, and is being taken into account. It is clearly important that, as we move to more renewable sources of energy and come off reliance on gas, we have an increased supply. It is also why the Government announced that Rolls Royce will be the first partner for small modular reactors, which will be an important part of our energy system going forward.