Proposed London datacentre will have annual carbon footprint of 27,000 flights to New York

Planning documents reveal that a proposed "hypo-scale" datacentre in north Ockendon, England, would have an annual carbon footprint equivalent to 27,000 flights from London to New York, if constructed. This East Havering Data Centre Campus (EHDCC) would occupy 218 hectares of green belt land and generate over 72 million tonnes of CO₂e over its 60-year lifespan, with 1.2 million tonnes emitted annually.

At a 50% electricity load, the campus would require 2.65 billion kWh of electricity per year, enough to power more than a million UK households. The campus would be powered by a major 600MVA connection to the National Grid via the nearby Warley substation, requiring substantial upgrades to existing infrastructure. Critics argue that the EHDCC's proposed emissions are "staggering" and pose a significant threat to the UK's ability to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

The developer, Digital Reef, has described the project as a "unique opportunity to create a sustainable datacentre campus of the future," but its carbon footprint raises concerns about the compatibility of such developments with UK net zero targets.