{"id":334732,"date":"2025-08-11T03:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T03:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/334732\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T03:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T03:21:10","slug":"uks-ai-ambitions-clash-with-its-climate-goals-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/334732\/","title":{"rendered":"UK\u2019s AI ambitions clash with its climate goals \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ministers were further told that \u201chigh wholesale electricity prices, long lead times for grid connections, and energy pricing are challenges to data center investment across the U.K.\u201d at a second <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/ai_energy_council\/response\/3094267\/attach\/4\/Annex%20B%20June%20Readout.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">meeting in June,<\/a> days after the government promised new measures to speed up grid connections in its Industrial Strategy.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said its plan for the U.K. to reach clean power by 2030 will enable the development of energy-intensive data centers, alongside work with regulator Ofgem and network companies \u201cto reform the outdated connections process and speed up delivery of new infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/12994264-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7013751\"  \/>The warning was raised at a meeting in late June between Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and executives from leading U.S. tech firms. | Pool Photo Chris J. Ratcliffe\/EPA<\/p>\n<p>However, attendees of the June meeting said AI demand is likely to \u201crely heavily\u201d on reprioritizing existing grid connections until 2030, suggesting promised reforms and investment are not expected to alleviate constraints significantly before then.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quick fix?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As countries race to adapt their electricity grids for the demands of AI, locating data centers close to new and existing gas facilities has been suggested as a quick way to access energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTemporary on-site generation, including natural gas fuel cells, was raised as an interim measure to meet power needs during grid connection delays,\u201d according to the June readout, noting the \u201climitations of batteries for backup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>DESNZ said the government is considering a range of options, but indicated it is not planning to authorize on-site gas cells. A spokesperson repeatedly declined to rule it out on the record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ministers were further told that \u201chigh wholesale electricity prices, long lead times for grid connections, and energy pricing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[1942,1394,748,32054,10594,17790,393,5435,4884,3739,1144,60394,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-334732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-big-tech","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-data-centers","13":"tag-decarbonization","14":"tag-ed-miliband","15":"tag-england","16":"tag-gas","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-net-zero","19":"tag-northern-ireland","20":"tag-peter-kyle","21":"tag-scotland","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom","24":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115007985035468808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}