AIBRIEF
The new threshold, roughly the power draw of a small town, gives ministers a window to call in the largest data centre builds, and Greens call it a welcome first step that will not stop one.
Scotland has set a 50-megawatt threshold for hyperscale data centres: planning authorities must now notify ministers within seven days of validating any application above that capacity, roughly the power draw of a small town and the size at which a site starts to look like an AI-scale build. The Herald Scotland reported the new direction first; the data-centre-specific direction has not yet appeared on gov.scot.
The rule sits inside ministers' existing intervention powers under Planning Circular 3/2009. It does not block any application. It gives ministers a window to call in the largest proposals, the same path Public Finance Minister Hannah Mary Goodlad used to recall the appeal over a proposed green data centre at Redheughs Avenue in Edinburgh, where the Scottish Government will now decide the case rather than an appointed Reporter, a Scottish-government official who examines planning appeals.
Scottish Greens climate spokesman Mark Ruskell called the move a "welcome" first step but said it will not prevent a single hyperscale data centre from being approved. Greens and Edinburgh councillors have pushed for a nationwide moratorium. Ministers have added new environmental assessment requirements for proposals in Edinburgh and Fife, but the Scottish Government still has not defined what a "green" data centre actually is.
First Minister John Swinney said in June he was considering national planning guidance for hyperscale AI data centres. The new threshold is the first such move aimed specifically at the largest data centre builds, applying the same notification template the Chief Planner used for large housing applications in September 2025.
What remains open: whether ministers will call in a hyperscale application, and what standard the Scottish Government will use to judge whether a data centre is green at all.