Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential for data centres, which consume high amounts of electricity, to be located near wind farms in Scotland that have previously been turned off due to the electricity grid being unable to handle excess generation.

Locating electricity demand in areas with high levels of electricity generation can help reduce the costs of managing the electricity system and the amount of new grid infrastructure that is needed. The government is committed to including data centres as part of its strategic energy plans and this department is working closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to ensure the growth of AI and data centres in the UK is done in a way that supports our clean power mission and longer-term decarbonisation goals.