Backlash grows against European data centers as AI ambitions clash with local resistance

European governments and companies increasingly want to store data within Europe rather than depend on the United States, which remains the global leader in computing power. But this push for digital sovereignty comes at a cost: growing consumption of the continent's water and electricity.

According to Germany's Ministry for Economic Affairs, cooling data centers requires between 0.4 and 4.4 liters of water for every kilowatt-hour of electricity used. This past summer was Europe's hottest on record, and some regions were forced to restrict water use for residents, farmers, and even nuclear power plants, raising concerns about what growing data center capacity could mean in the future.

Power demand and new rules

Finland's grid operator Fingrid has forecast that electricity consumption could rise by nearly 40% if every project with a signed connection agreement goes ahead. In response to such concerns, the European Commission this week announced a new scheme requiring data centers with a capacity above 500 kW to receive an efficiency grade that accounts for their grid impact and any reuse of waste heat.

Local protests spread

Europe's largest data centers have traditionally clustered around Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin, but grid constraints in those hubs are pushing new projects toward cities like Groningen, Barcelona and Brussels, as well as rural areas — fueling more frequent protests. In the Austrian city of Linz, hundreds demonstrated against Google's planned data center in nearby Kronstorf. In Ireland, author Sally Rooney led a successful campaign to overturn planning permission for a data center in the village of Killala. In France, several local officials in the village of Etrechet resigned over Google's plans for a massive facility that could require up to 1.1 gigawatts of power at full capacity — comparable to the output of a nuclear power plant.

Operators argue that facilities can be designed more sustainably. A data center under construction in Marseille will reportedly use a cooling system that consumes no water, while some Scandinavian centers channel waste heat from servers into district heating networks.