Slough residents endure extreme heat from datacentre park
Residents and workers in Slough, home to Europe's largest datacentre park, report that the summer heat has become unbearable, with emerging research linking the facilities to a significant heat island effect. Nabeel Nawaz, store manager of a Chaiiwala franchise in the town centre, described the heat as like something 'pinching your body and burning your skin.'
The town, located 10 miles west of Heathrow, hosts an estimated 30 to 40 large datacentre facilities, many on a central campus owned by companies such as Equinix and Digital Realty. These serve major tech clients including Amazon, Google, Oracle and Microsoft, with more planned on the campus edge.
Research shows datacentres raise local temperatures
A preprint of a study led by researchers at Cambridge University, published earlier this year, suggests datacentres create a heat island effect, raising temperatures in their immediate vicinity by an average of 2C and as much as 9C. The heat is generated by cooling systems needed to protect sensitive electronics, including advanced AI chips.
Andrea Marinoni, an associate professor at Cambridge and co-author of the paper, said the research is still nascent but robust. Based on decades of satellite data and controlling for urbanisation and climate change, the study found a 2C increase worldwide, citing datacentre complexes in Brazil and Spain. However, Marinoni noted that Slough's facilities are far larger than those studied, with a typical power consumption of up to 100 megawatts compared to Slough's estimated gigawatt capacity.
'Slough is almost like an experiment by itself,' Marinoni said. 'The new investments in datacentres are bringing to life a new generation of datacentres. What we measured were the first generation implemented in the last 20 years. Slough is a different context for scaling up, something quite unprecedented.'
Local temperature readings show stark differences
On a recent Wednesday, the closest weather station to the tech park recorded a high of 36.7C, while other stations in Slough and surrounding areas were cooler by several degrees. A station in the town centre, farther from the park, reached 36.2C that day and 34.7C the previous day. This pattern held throughout the week.
Residents have mixed views on the datacentres' impact. Didier Kindembe, on his lunch break in the industrial park, said, 'I think it's the concrete too and not just the datacentres. There's a lot of concrete around, and it absorbs the heat.' His friend Matt, who declined to give his surname, noted that during the 2022 heatwave, the temperature in a car park reached 45C, while nearby Windsor was 39C.
Naveed Hussein, a lifelong Slough resident, said, 'People are questioning, why is it so hot? It's getting hotter. My computer gives off a lot of heat. So does my phone. So I have to imagine that the big datacentres do as well.'
Nawaz, the Chaiiwala manager, estimates that datacentres account for only 10% to 15% of the heat increase, attributing most to climate change. The datacentres also provide jobs for the community, he noted.
The UK government has proposed using waste heat from datacentres to warm thousands of homes, but for now, Slough's residents continue to swelter.
