Data centres in Europe face EU energy ratings

The European Commission proposed on September 21 to rate data centres in Europe on their energy and water use as the European Union tries to expand computing capacity without increasing pressure on grids and resources.

The EU aims to triple its data centre capacity over the next seven years as it seeks to catch up with the United States and China on artificial intelligence. European Commission vice president Teresa Ribera said that goal could not mean “tripling the pressure on our grids, our water and our energy bills.”

The proposed scheme would give the public information about sites with capacity above 500 kW, which already have to report key performance metrics to the EU. The labels would use a colour scale similar to home appliance ratings, from A/green for the most efficient to G/red for the least efficient.

The Commission said the score would also reflect contributions to the grid, such as reusing waste heat and adding clean energy generation capacity. The labels would be automatically generated from company reporting and published in an EU database, with the first expected in 2027.

The International Energy Agency estimates that the fast-growing sector will account for more than 3% of total EU electricity demand by 2030. EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen said understanding data centres’ energy and resource use was the first step toward integrating them sustainably into the energy system.

The Commission said it is also looking at minimum performance standards for data centres.