Data centres could strain Europe’s power supply by 2030, report warns

Europe’s ambitions to build data centres could strain the continent’s power supplies and increase greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade, says a new report released ahead of France’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit. 

The non-profit organisation Beyond Fossil Fuels estimates that electricity demands could rise by up to 160 per cent by 2030, reaching 287 TWh/year, more than Spain’s total electricity consumption in 2022. 

If fossil fuels are used to meet these energy demands, annual emissions from new EU data centres could grow from 5 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions in 2025 to roughly 39 million in 2030, the report continued, more than Lithuania and Estonia’s total emissions for 2022. 

“If the data centre growth relies on fossil gas, it will fuel the climate crisis,” Jill McArdle, the international corporate campaigner for Beyond Fossil Fuels, said in a statement. 

“To prevent this, expansion must go hand in hand with the buildout of additional renewable energy. If tech companies cannot bring their demand growth in line with climate science—it must be limited”.

More than half of energy requirements come from new builds

The German non-profit used public data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and consulting firm McKinsey to develop four hypotheses for how emissions could grow as more data centres are built. 

The report evaluated what would happen if there was high or low demand for data centres and the impacts on emissions if those centres were supplied with mostly fossil fuels or green energy in the form of solar or wind. 

The report said that more than half of that energy demand would come from new data centre builds throughout the continent.

If all data centres were powered by renewable energy, there “would be no additional GHG emissions by the sector” in 2030, the non-profit organisation said.

Data centres are estimated to currently account for some three per cent of the continent’s electricity demand.  

However, the energy consumption isn’t distributed equally.

A 2024 EU data centre energy consumption report found that data centres consume much more of Ireland’s and the Netherlands’ energy than the EU-wide average, up to 21 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively. 

Tech companies claim they will limit emissions

The World Economic Forum (WEF) said there are several ways for Big Tech companies to reduce their emissions, including switching to renewable energy, reusing waste heat, and building water evaporation systems only in places where the supply is “sufficient and sustainable”. 

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is working on operating its data centres with carbon-free energy by 2030. 

Microsoft is changing materials for its data centres, like using a hybrid fire-resistanttimber, to reduce emissions. 

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The EU updated the Energy Efficiency Directive last year, so data centre operators are required to publish their emissions and other data to a European-wide database twice a year. 

Still, Beyond Fossil Fuels said there’s a need for “far greater transparency” on how much energy data centres consume and how tech companies commit to reducing their emissions.