Data Centres: Energy Demand

Lord Wigley Excerpts

Thursday 16th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

I welcome that question from the noble Lord. This is an issue that is quite close to my heart, and I recently visited the Liverpool tidal barrage scheme to see how it is doing. I personally am committed to developing tidal power, both tidal stream and tidal range, but there is still some way to go in working out how that can be value for money and can be supported through various longer-term methods of support because of the long life that tidal range in particular has in front of it.

[Lord Wigley (PC)]

My Lords, does the Minister accept that the most economic way of meeting such peak demand from clean sources is rapidly to accelerate the programme for building hydro pump storage schemes? There are a number that are ready to go in Wales and Scotland. They are clearly economic, using electricity generated cheaply at night to augment peak availability, so please, please, please will the Government get on with it?

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

I agree with the noble Lord that pumped hydro schemes are one method of ensuring that electricity is used as efficiently as it can be in terms of taking it in at some stages of the cycle and releasing it at others. A number of other arrangements can do that, such as batteries and other forms of long-term storage—compressed air, for example—all of which will be a substantial part of the battery of systems to optimise the electricity production of the country as AI develops.