A Caithness campaigner has identified what he sees as a potential new threat to landscapes in the north of Scotland – this time in the aftermath of a projected boom in artificial intelligence data centres.

Tony Shaw outlined his concerns over the “AI bubble” and claimed there will be a risk of “underused, expensive infrastructure and environmental devastation” in the Highlands and other areas “if the bubble bursts”.

He launched the Save Caithness campaign in 2024 to help communities fight large-scale energy developments in the county. Since then, concerns have continued to grow over wind turbines, pylons, substations and battery energy storage systems.

In its latest newsletter, Save Caithness warns: “Environmental groups and analysts warn that proposed AI data centres could double Scotland’s electricity demand, consume vast resources and damage rural landscapes.”

The UK government says it is accelerating efforts to build the infrastructure needed to support AI expansion. “AI Growth Zones” will, it says, help drive innovation, create skilled jobs and strengthen the UK’s position as a leader in artificial intelligence.

The Save Caithness newsletter states: “The AI bubble is a period of inflated expectations and massive investment in artificial intelligence technology that may not yield proportional economic value. If the bubble bursts (leading financial analysts agree that it is a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’), major companies could fail, job losses would spike and large infrastructure built to support AI – notably energy generation, transmission and data centres – could become financially stranded assets.

“Scotland is rushing into large-scale grid, transmission and data centre projects without robust independent scrutiny or obligatory environmental assessment. The Scottish Government and energy regulators are overly accommodating to corporate and political pressures, enabling a system of almost automatic consent.

“The UK government’s AI Growth Zones plan, which would subsidise electricity for data centres, could further shift costs onto ordinary consumers.”

Mr Shaw, who is retired after a career in IT, said: “This is all against a background in which it seems as though, many years ago, planners at Highland Council and the Scottish Government fell in love with the idea of wind turbines everywhere – especially in Caithness.

“What else could explain the way in which Highland Council’s onshore wind farm policy would so blatantly provide speculators, and anyone else looking to make money out of energy generation, with an open door to almost the entire county?

“Now it appears that those same people are being seduced by the notion that there is a golden future to be had by harnessing themselves to the projected boom in AI data centres and the massive energy resources that they require.

“Who is taking stock of the risks for Scotland, such as the probable oversupply of infrastructure? Who is independently testing the resilience of the energy projections for the UK from the Department for Energy and Net Zero? Are the Highland Council or the Scottish Government getting any independent assessment in considering these obvious risks?

“And how is it that in Canada, provincial governments are introducing legislation to protect consumers from the effects of data centre demand, whilst in the UK they are proposing discounted electricity for the data centre providers?”