Data Centres to be Expanded in the UK as Concerns Mount

B2 – Upper Intermediate 

To some extent, large data centres contribute to the drought conditions in the UK. One huge data centre consumes about the same amount of water as 50,000 households.

Amidst growing concerns, the UK is going to go ahead with building additional data centres. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said these facilities are necessary in order to continue boosting the country’s economy.

Read the article about the UK’s plans to continue building more data centres despite growing concerns over their environmental impact.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyr9nx0jrzo

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “knock-on effect” mean? “But there are concerns about their impact, including the potential knock-on effect on people’s energy bills.” Use the term in a sentence. Give a synonym or similar expression.
  2. What does “appease” mean? “But he insisted “data centres are fixated with becoming as sustainable as possible”, such as through dry-cooling methods. Such promises of future solutions have failed to appease some.” Use the word in a sentence. Give a synonym or similar expression.
  3. What does “offshore” mean? “According to the National Energy System Operator, NESO, the projected growth of data centres in Great Britain could “add up to 71 TWh of electricity demand” in the next 25 years, which it says redoubles the need for clean power – such as offshore wind.” Use the word in a sentence. Give a synonym or similar expression.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What concerns revolve around building more data centres in the UK?
  2. According to the article, what are some workarounds for this issue? Do you think they are any good? Discuss.
  3. Share your insights on this, “Data centres are central to the UK’s economic future.” 
  4. Do you think more data centres should be built in a country given the environmental and knock-on effects they bring? Share your thoughts.
  5. Do you think that companies should pay the price for extra energy to power data centres – not consumers? Share your opinion.
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2 replies on “Data Centres to be Expanded in the UK as Concerns Mount”

Discussion Questions:
1. What concerns revolve around building more data centres in the UK?
There are some concerns about building more data centres in the UK:
Firstible they consume a lot of energy (electricity) and it may cause that the people pay more in their energy bills.
Secondly, these big buildings could have negatively impact with the environment. These building need a lot of water to cold them, so it is a negative impact.

2. According to the article, what are some workarounds for this issue? Do you think they are any good? Discuss.
According to the article there are solutions for this issue. I´m going to start for the second one: To cool the buildings they want to use dry-cooling methods. (wind…) But it could be not enough to cooling them. I have doubt if this solution is factible or not. I think it is not.
For the first problem I said before (Increase the people´s energy bills) I think the solution they propose could be correct. They say this increase in the energy bills will be paid by the companies and not by the people. So, I think it’s a good solution, because companies are the ones that make the money.

3. Share your insights on this, “Data centres are central to the UK’s economic future.”
We can assure the IA and big data analysis is the future or at least the technology innovation that will disrupt many sectors in the economy we know nowadays. For this reason, I think data centres are central to the UK and many countries and the countries which have more data centres and the moderns ones will be the champions in the future (economically speaking).

4. Do you think more data centres should be built in a country given the environmental and knock-on effects they bring? Share your thoughts.
All innovation and all new infrastructure building could cause negative impacts on environment and can cause knock-of effects. In this case, I guess more data centres will cause this negative effects, because the size of these buildings and all they need to work efficiently are enormous.

5. Do you think that companies should pay the price for extra energy to power data centres – not consumers? Share your opinion.
I think is a great idea, because companies are the ones that make the money.

Welcome back to your writing practice! Thank you for sharing your thoughts about this matter.

Here is how you can write a few sentences a little better:

Firstible they consume a lot of energy (electricity) and it may cause that the people pay more in their energy bills.

First of all, they consume a lot of energy or (electricity) and it may cause that the people to pay more for their energy bills.

I think is a great idea, because companies are the ones that make the money.

I think it is a great idea, because companies are the ones that make making the money from these data centres and not the consumers.

Keep up the good work! Until your next comment.

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