Scotland generates more electricity than it consumes. The Pentland Firth holds the world's strongest tidal resource. A 2GW HVDC cable lands at Peterhead. This is not potential — it is operational infrastructure, and it is the foundation of a structural cost advantage in distributed AI compute.
PUE measures how much power a facility uses beyond the compute itself. A PUE of 1.5 means 50p of every £1 spent on power goes to cooling, lighting, and infrastructure rather than computation. Scotland's climate gives edge nodes a natural advantage here.
At 1MW of compute draw — a modest AI inference cluster — the power cost differential between Scotland and a London facility is substantial enough to fund additional hardware annually.
Assumes London £0.28/kWh PUE 1.4 vs Scotland £0.08/kWh PUE 1.1. Power saving alone funds hardware expansion. This is the compounding advantage of brownfield infrastructure.