A new page, Has the environment been properly assessed?, explains in plain terms how Environmental Impact Assessment works, what to check on the planning file, why serious effects should not simply be left to planning conditions, and how to use the Environmental Information Regulations and WhatDoTheyKnow if information is withheld.
Also new since 3 October
- Waste heat and food security. Almost all the electricity a data centre uses ends up as heat. The power page now asks why data centres, unlike power stations, are not expected to plan for using it, for example to heat glasshouses.
- Cardiff East. The environmental assessment for the proposed 150 MW data centre relies on a 2022 scoping opinion given for ordinary commercial units. See the power page in depth.
- Menai. The proposed data centre near Caernarfon is reported to need up to about 12 million litres of water a day at most, seventeen times its expected normal use. See the water page.
- Who controls the data. A committee of MPs has called the growing role of Palantir in the UK public sector “an unacceptable point of weakness”. See the data page.
- Toolkit. The checklist now has fifteen questions, adding waste heat and water reuse.
- Questions. New questions to Cardiff Council, Natural Resources Wales, Gwynedd Council, the Welsh Government and the Minister for AI are in the questions tracker.