Mr Jackson called for data centres to be built in Scotland to soak up the country’s surplus wind power, arguing that Britain’s outdated grid infrastructure is forcing bill-payers to foot an increasingly costly bill for electricity the country cannot use.
Speaking to The Independent’s Editor-in-Chief Geordie Greig, Mr Jackson said the UK’s electricity market was built for a fossil fuel era that no longer exists.
“Our grids don’t fit the pattern of our generation” today, he said, noting that Scotland now generates three times more wind power than it currently uses. Rather than spending huge amounts of money extending the grid south to move that power to demand centres in England, Mr Jackson suggested that the country should instead move the demand north.
Mr Jackson – whose company is now the UK’s largest household energy supplier – focused firmly on the UK’s domestic clean energy agenda. He suggested that the current approach from grid operators – building an estimated £150 billion of new grid infrastructure to ship Scottish wind power south – would only push up costs for consumers, when a cheaper fix was available by relocating demand instead.
“Encourage data centres to move to Scotland and use that cheap electricity,” he said.
