Fawley Waterside Redevelopments Into Economy Hub Giving Focus To Digital Industries

Having revealed their reproposed development proposal and completed the first round of public consultation, Fawley Waterside is moving forward with proposal revisions. These plans include the development of “digital industries,” which is to say, a possible data centre. They promise that such developments will boost the local job market while promising to stay mindful of the natural environment around it. This isn’t an especially unique line of thought—data centres have been cropping up worldwide, especially with the rise of the AI industry. However, with the rapid building of data centres have come a rapid reevaluation of the costs they inflict upon us.

Although the words ‘data centre’ have not been in sight within the proposal, but locals are getting suspicious. In a 2nd August post by New Forest District Councillor David Harrison, he states that: “This is relevant locally, because we have plans in place that will mean impacts, including upgrades to the National grid, a planned large data centre at Fawley and battery storage facilities and more solar power generation.” 

AI is not a neutral technology. In Atlas of AI : Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence, Kate Crawford outlines the interconnected systems of exploitation that drive technology and how they lead to AI as an ultimate means of reinforcing the very inequalities that it is built upon. Her exploration of the physical sites and buildings underpinning the digital world provide insight into how the costs of technological development are frequently borne by those lowest on the rungs of power.

Data centres are no exception, consuming a vast amount of natural resources from the physical space that each building must occupy to their intense use of electricity and water. Those in the States have already experienced the effects of AI data centres’ water consumption during record-breaking drought. Considering the current state of the UK’s weather—or rather, the notable lack of signature British rain—do we really need more data centres? Consumption aside, the financial costs of these resources frequently get passed off to already-struggling local communities. Not only do they heavily pollute the air and water around the area, but data centres are also so noisy that residents experience headaches, vertigo, nausea, sleep disturbances, ear pain, and hypertension.

The Fawley proposal does not address these potential impacts on the local community, focusing only on mitigations to disruption during the construction process. No amount of green space and walkable pathways will offset the environmental impact of a data centre’s resource emissions and 24/7 noise pollution. The old power centre has remained abandoned for long enough, but the solution should not become a new problem.

Technocapitalism: The Rise of the New Robber Barons and the Fight for the Common Good, by Loretta Napoleoni, traces the recent histories of technological development and outlines the capitalist drives that have repeatedly used new technologies to further imping on workers’ rights. Napoleoni argues that collective action by the common people are necessary lest we continue on this trajectory toward dystopia.

Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism outlines a path forward through the lens of Marxist theory. Despite being published in 2019, before the ongoing AI boom caused by the public launch of ChatGPT in 2022, the writers of Inhuman Power presciently describe the extent of capital and labor exploitation that it has enabled. It is thoughtful to look into the ways that the AI industry was shaping up in 2019 and how the current situation was very much predictable but not yet unavoidable. Revolutionary change is on the horizon, if only we take action to make it so.

Fawley Waterside will be opening a second round of public consultations in autumn 2026, during which they will be collecting public feedback on their revised proposal. Make your voice heard.

See here for details and public consultation information: Fawley Waterside

Written by Ronnie Chang, edited by Vera Chiu