{"id":706,"date":"2026-01-22T18:35:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/?p=706"},"modified":"2026-01-22T18:35:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:35:23","slug":"planning-support-for-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/01\/22\/planning-support-for-data-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"Planning Support For Data Centers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Data Centers: Planning &amp; EIA<\/h1>\n<p>There are around 9 million data centers in the world. And before building one there are lots of considerations to take in to account:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>proximity to power grids<\/li>\n<li>telecommunications infrastructure<\/li>\n<li>networking services<\/li>\n<li>transportation lines and emergency services.<\/li>\n<li>flight paths<\/li>\n<li>neighboring power drains<\/li>\n<li>geological risks<\/li>\n<li>climate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Obtaining Planning Permission for a Data Center<\/h2>\n<p>In the UK, data centres are generally classified as <b data-path-to-node=\"0\" data-index-in-node=\"52\">Schedule 2<\/b> developments under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations. Because of their scale and intensive resource use, Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) often require a full Environmental Statement (ES) to be submitted with the planning application.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_707\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-707\" class=\"wp-image-707 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/data-centre-visual-impact-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/data-centre-visual-impact-.jpg 640w, https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/data-centre-visual-impact--300x130.jpg 300w, https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/data-centre-visual-impact--624x270.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-707\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Data Centers are Large Square Buildings<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Common EIA Elements for Data Centres<\/h2>\n<p>An EIA for a data center is structured into several technical chapters. These are the most frequent requirements from an LPA:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.southwest-environmental.co.uk\/further%20info\/environmental_impact_assessment\/noise_impact_assessment.html\">Noise and Vibration<\/a>: Assessing the impact of 24\/7 cooling fans, backup generators (tested periodically), and construction traffic on nearby residents.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.southwest-environmental.co.uk\/further%20info\/environmental_impact_assessment\/visual_landsacpe_impact_assessment.html\">Landscape and Visual Impact (LVIA)<\/a>: Data centres are often large, windowless &#8220;big box&#8221; buildings. The LVIA assesses how they sit in the landscape, including &#8220;glint and glare&#8221; from panels and the effect of night-time security lighting.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.southwest-environmental.co.uk\/navigation_pages\/zero_carbon_consultants.html\">Climate and Energy<\/a>: Detailed analysis of power demand and greenhouse gas emissions. Following 2024 reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), this now includes how the facility supports the &#8220;modern economy.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.southwest-environmental.co.uk\/further%20info\/environmental_impact_assessment\/air_quality_climate_impact_assessment.html\">Air Quality<\/a>: Focuses on emissions from emergency backup diesel generators and construction dust.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.southwest-environmental.co.uk\/further%20info\/environmental_impact_assessment\/socio_economic_impact_assessment.html\">Socio-Economics<\/a>: Employment generation (construction vs. operational jobs) and the facility&#8217;s contribution to the local digital economy.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.southwest-environmental.co.uk\/further%20info\/environmental_impact_assessment\/water_impact_assessment.html\">Water Environment<\/a>: Data centres require significant cooling. LPAs require assessments of water consumption, drainage, and potential impact on local aquifers.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.southwest-environmental.co.uk\/further%20info\/ecology\/biodiversity_net_gain.html\">Biodiversity<\/a>: Demonstrating a 10% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), which is a mandatory requirement for most UK developments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How Can We Help?<\/h2>\n<p>If you have a site in mind where you would like to build a data center please <a href=\"mailto:info@southwest-environmental.co.uk\">contact us<\/a>, and we will work with you team to guide you through the planning process.<\/p>\n<h2>Ideas<\/h2>\n<p>Data centers create a lot of heat. Could you get paid for that heat? What about building a data center under a shopping center or next to a paper mill? Talk to us about that, and how it might work.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Data Centers: Planning &amp; EIA There are around 9 million data centers in the world. And before building one there are lots of considerations to take in to account: proximity to power grids telecommunications infrastructure networking services transportation lines and emergency services. flight paths neighboring power drains geological risks climate Obtaining Planning Permission for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environmental-impact","category-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":708,"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions\/708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}