Speed, sustainability and scale: How AWS seeks to redefine European data centre policy

After delivering the opening keynote at Datacloud Energy Europe 2026, AWS’s director of infrastructure policy EMEA, Niamh Gallagher, shared her expertise on how policy can create progress in the European data centre industry.

“We’re in such a busy period of European policymaking, and in the next 12-18 months, there will be many measures that will have an impact on the sector,” she explained to Capacity.

“As an industry, we can show up to help drive ambition at speed and at scale to achieve the thing we all want to achieve – making Europe the most competitive and the best possible location for data centre investment.”

Sustainable by design offers a competitive advantage

A range of policies have been proposed across the industry, including the Grids Package, the Cloud and AI Development Act, the data centre rating scheme and other water policies. Gallagher cites the importance of collaboration in these areas to “influence and agree positions and drive ambition forward”.

Currently, the data centre industry is in a state of flux, particularly when it comes to policies like these, on account of the AI boom and the continued evolution of technology. To champion sustainable progress, Gallagher explained how AWS seeks to operate at the forefront of sustainable innovation, with some of its data centres use no water at all, for 95% of the year.

“We’ve set a really ambitious goal for ourselves, which is to become water positive by 2030,” she said. “That means returning more water to the communities that we operate in than we use for our own operations. We’re already halfway there with four years to go.”

She added: “When we think about water, we think about it holistically – we think about the water that we use for cooling, but also the energy use of our data centres and how that water and energy use interplay.”

Within the data centre industry now, water is top of mind – with the sector focused on improving water efficiency to cool its technologies and systems. For AWS – a company with a mission to become water positive by 2030 – Gallagher explained that all operators should consider water management during site selection and in the design phase.

“It’s fundamental that, in the communities we operate in, we are contributing back,” she said. “As we look at the data centre rating scheme, we are proposing a sustainable water use factor – so we can look at water replenishment in the communities we operate in and how we’re giving back.”

In addition to broadening its thinking about water, AWS is pushing for policy that considers industrial water reuse.

“Traditionally, this has only been something that was an option in the agricultural sector,” Gallagher explained. “If we were to bring data centres and other industrial operators into that space, there would be more creative ways of using water to ensure we maximise our impact.”

Overcoming challenges to operate at scale

As it scales further to maintain its sustainability leadership, AWS is also finding success in investing in the communities where it operates – something that has become a bigger focus for the data centre industry in recent years.

In particular, the company’s Tallaght district heating scheme in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, harnesses heat from its data centre to contribute heat back into the local community.

“It heats a local university campus entirely, in addition to a set of commercial and local authority buildings and apartments,” Gallagher told us. “The reason this project works is that it’s got the right set of partners – including a developer in the data centre who manages heat infrastructure, in addition to the local authority South Dublin County Council, who drove the project forward.”

Having had a strong success case, Gallagher strongly advocates for a partnership approach as the key to driving progress and industry growth.

“There is an enormous opportunity for waste heat reuse where data centre operators are present, but everyone needs to play their role,” she said.

With the EU planning to triple its capacity to become a leader in AI, Gallagher said ambition is the key to driving progress forward – and that starts with collaborating to overcome industry challenges.

“The industry needs to club together to address policy issues that can help enable grid access,” she said. “We need to make sure we have a modern grid, fit for purpose, for large-scale AI infrastructure to connect quickly.”

A significant area that the industry has called for reform in is permitting systems. While Europe has some good tools in place for permitting, Gallagher shared that others are less predictable or speedy.

“We need a uniform approach, or certainty around when permits are going to be issued,” she added. “The two fundamental challenges [in the industry] are grid access and permitting, but the ambition is there to achieve that European goal.

“That’s why the industry coming together is so important.”

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