How Europe’s data center landscape is evolving

Article published by Sentisight.ai on January 16

European data center growth is increasingly shaped by power constraints rather than connectivity alone. With approximately 3,400 facilities across 45 countries, the region remains a global hub, but limited grid capacity in established markets is pushing development in new directions.

As a result, operators are looking beyond established markets toward the Nordic countries, as well as Spain and Portugal. Cooler climates, access to renewable energy, and more resilient power infrastructure are supporting this shift, particularly for AI and high-performance workloads.

District heating programs are expanding across Europe, with data center operators supplying waste heat to nearby buildings and communities. atNorth’s waste heat reuse work includes an agreement with Finnish retailer Kesko Corporation, where surplus heat from the Espoo data center reduces the store’s heating emissions by more than 200 tons of CO2 annually.

European data center power demand reached 96 TWh in 2024 and is projected to increase to 168 TWh by 2030, reinforcing the need for scalable, energy-efficient infrastructure models.

Read the full article here.