Holyrood’s Economy, Tourism and Energy Committee, external is investigating the energy use that will come from placing more data centres in Scotland.
Dr Callum MacIver, research fellow at the University of Strathclyde, said data centres in Scotland would mop up excess renewable energy.
This would cut the multi-million pound bill for constraint payments, which are made when there is too much wind power being generated.
But he warned that the growth was still likely to increase the use of fossil fuels.
MacIver said: “Adding demand in general is likely to put pressure on meeting decarbonisation goals.
“It’s not always windy or sunny so adding new demand to the system is likely to increase the amount of fossil fuel burn you have on it.”
The academic added that locating data centres in “the most sensible places” could mitigate how big those impacts are by using more wind energy.
The inquiry also heard that it was unclear how the increased infrastructure costs, linked to a growth in AI data centres, would be shared between operators and wider consumers as additional costs on their bills.
