Datacentres and the Energy Transition
How Datacentres Play a Dynamic Role in the Energy Transition
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2026年7月29日
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SUMMARY
- Datacentres (“DCs”) are critical to an increasingly digital economy that places a greater reliance on cloud computing, generative AI and internet-of-things applications to deliver sustained economic growth.
- They are also inextricably linked to the global clean energy transition. As energy systems become more electrified, decentralised and data-driven, DCs will provide the computing capacity needed to manage that complexity, while also driving significant increases in electricity demand. In 2024 DCs were estimated to account for approximately 3% of Europe’s electricity consumption,1 with one forecast anticipating EU demand to increase from 70 TWh in 2024 to 115 TWh by 2030.2
- Where speed to construction is a key investor metric, this poses two key questions for DC developers: firstly, how to procure this energy; and secondly, how to connect to the grid with potentially decade-long connection queues, already under pressure by electrification. Failure to address these two questions effectively may lead to national or local political pushback and regulatory restrictions due to the significant strain on energy resources they could cause.
- DC developers, policymakers and energy-systems stakeholders will need to address such concerns proactively. DCs are essential to the future digital economy and digitalised integrated energy systems. There is a real opportunity to integrate new capacity in ways that support low-carbon generation, strengthen the electricity system and demonstrate the sector’s role in a more digitalised energy transition. Three priorities stand out:
- Driving growth in renewable and low-carbon generation capacity, in particular in novel technologies such as small modular reactors (“SMRs”) and long-duration energy storage (“LDES”).
- Integrate new DC capacity into the electricity system in ways that strengthen network resilience and efficiency, including through better siting decisions and carefully designed opportunities to contribute to grid stability and sharing of network costs.
- Demonstrate how DCs deployment can support wider decarbonisation and energy transition goals, including providing a technological platform for utilities to automatically manage millions of flexible smart technologies.
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2026年7月29日
主な連絡先
Senior Managing Director, Head of Brussels Energy & Industrials
シニア・マネージング・ディレクター
Executive Vice President