Datacloud Energy Europe, which is currently ongoing in Brussels, couldn’t be timelier for the data centre industry. Recent analysis – including S&P Global Market Intelligence’s forecast that predicts data centre electricity demand to roughly double by 2030 – has ultimately reshaped the urgency and energy for conversations around accelerating AI adoption.
Annabel Helm, managing director of Datacloud – a techoraco brand, shared that conversations taking place over the next two days will not only influence the industry, but Europe’s competitiveness in technology moving forward.
“This summit arrives at a pivotal moment,” she said during her welcoming remarks. “The infrastructure we’re responsible for is not nice to have; it’s critical. We need the clarity, alignment and partnerships to act.
“It’s not a passive agenda; it’s an action framework. We are standing at a moment of consequence.”
Across Europe, grid pressures are a significant challenge and are already reshaping Europe’s digital infrastructure map. In the UK alone, the latest assessment from the National Grid in the UK said that more than 30 gigawatts of data centre traffic connection requests are now sitting in the queue, with build-up timelines ranging between seven and 14 years.
This, Helm explained, is not fast enough for AI infrastructure growth.
Likewise, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said data centre electricity consumption could surge towards 950 terawatts by 2030. Helm added that this would make digital infrastructure one of the fastest-growing energy consumers on the planet.
“The numbers we’re seeing tell a clear story,” she said. “Europe’s bottleneck isn’t generation, it’s energy delivery. We have the potential, we have the innovation, we have the ambition; what we lack is alignment.”
Mark Acton, head of technical due diligence at the Future-Tech and Data Centre Alliance (DCA), added that the data centre industry has a strong focus on power and energy, while twentieth-century grids try to support today’s demands.
“We’re trying to balance intermittent services with a stable grid … it’s essential that we have open lines of communication between policymakers, regulators and operators to look at more innovative solutions,” he said, speaking during his opening statement at the event this morning.
“It’s vitally important that we have these conversations to understand where demand is coming from – we can’t just be profligate in our use of energy. We need to be as efficient as we possibly can.”
At the same time as considering energy and capacity, Acton explored how the data centre industry can contribute to the wider community. This is something that is currently the subject of much debate, given the negative press that data centres receive.
“Could we be better at using energy and then putting it back into the community?” was a question that Acton posed. “We need more community engagement and have to demonstrate value to the community – there’s more we can offer than just jobs.”
He added: “It’s a fine balance between being responsible energy users but also being part of an economic and digital economy. If we’re too restrictive in terms of not providing sufficient power, we’re not providing enough power, we’re not delivering it.”
More Datacloud Energy Europe content to come this week – check out our website for more data centre content.
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