Socio-economic Assessment of Green Data Centres in Scotland

Frazer-Nash Consultancy were commissioned by Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Government to research and assess the potential socio-economic impacts of hyperscale data centres in Scotland. The report considers three main questions:

• How can data centres create socio-economic impacts
• To what extent do data centres realise these impacts?
• How does policy, planning, and interventions influence these impacts?

This research was commissioned in January 2026, and completed in April 2026.

The study took in a mix of primary and secondary research, including a rapid assessment of existing evidence and literature, 14 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders (including developers, local government, regulators, industry bodies, community groups), and synthesis and review. It drew on existing assessments including modelling by Scottish Enterprise on the potential direct economic impacts of data centre developments in Scotland and work to explore the Scottish supply chain by Soben Group.opens in a new window 

The report concludes that green data centres can be valuable enabling infrastructure for Scotland, but that investment needs to be strategic and actively shaped by policy. In particular, the report notes that Scotland should seek to:

• Specialise: focus on intersections where the country has existing strengths, notably in renewables integration and a strong academic research base.
• Retain value: develop a Scottish supply chain for construction, grid services, operations, and maintenance; promote local skills pathways.
• Benefits case: support site-specific, measurable benefit packages (e.g. heat-reuse offtakes, grid flexibility, local workforce targets) enabling planning and consent with intent to maximise regional benefit to Scotland.
• Compete on differentiation: position on innovation and sustainability rather than price or deregulation.

The reports set out a number of priorities and areas for further research. This includes defining success, with clearer expectations around resource usage (energy and water efficiency metrics) and community and local benefits; measuring outcomes; supporting collaboration between stakeholders and learning lessons from peer countries; improving what data is available on the socio-economic benefits and costs of data centre development; and putting in place clearer planning guidance.