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Slough datacentre hub leaves town sweltering, study finds

techJun 26, 202618179

Researchers studying Europe’s largest datacentre cluster around Slough found the facilities can raise local temperatures by as much as 9C, creating a pronounced heat island during recent heatwaves. The closest weather station to the tech park recorded a high of 36.7C one day and 36.5C the previous day while other stations in Slough and surrounding areas were several degrees cooler. The cluster near Slough is widely reported to total roughly one gigawatt of computing capacity, giving these hyperscale sites disproportionate local effects. Critics warn the datacentres also strain water supplies and add to community noise, and local campaigners point to plans for about 20 proposed datacentres in nearby towns including Iver, Denham and Colnbrook. Researchers and residents describe Slough as an experiment in how large concentrated datacentre hubs interact with urban heat and infrastructure during extreme weather. The findings have prompted calls for tighter planning controls and for developers to adopt measures such as heat reuse, ground-source cooling and more landscaping to limit local warming.

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