Can data centres meet Europe’s digital and energy ambitions?

The digital and clean energy transitions have never been so interwoven. Artificial intelligence (AI), cloud capacity and digital infrastructure are now crucial for industrial competitiveness and modernisation. Europe cannot afford to disregard the accelerating development of AI, as it becomes an essential enabling technology for defence, productivity and industrial transformation. Data centres are the vital infrastructure to scale investments in AI and meet Europe’s digitalisation objectives to become an AI continent, but they also represent an increasing source of electricity demand, at a time when grid capacity is widely recognised as being a critical enabler for the transition.

The European debate is therefore shifting from whether Europe should expand its data centre footprint to how it can do so in a way that supports the clean energy transition from the start. This shift is urgent: Europe faces a narrow window to make informed decisions on the next location of data centres, grids and infrastructure, to avoid a mismatch between rapidly rising electricity demand and available low-carbon supply, and to ensure the long-term affordability and resilience of energy systems. The escalation of the conflict in the Middle East creates another pressure point, as Europe confronts rising energy prices and the consequences of its dependency on imported fossil fuels.

This discussion raises the question of ‘how to be a good grid citizen’, moving towards a model where the private sector, in collaboration with public authorities and energy-related parties, can work on solutions to advance the efficiency of data centres, increase investments in clean energy, demand-side flexibility, grid-enhancing technologies to use networks more efficiently, reduce waste and produce local value through heat recovery and stronger integration with district heating, where the potential of secondary heat sources remains still largely untapped.

Against this backdrop, this high-level discussion will explore how policymakers, regulators, grid operators, data centre developers, investors and private sector actors can align Europe’s digital growth with its energy, climate and competitiveness ambitions. At a time when governance models are being defined to align decarbonisation and digitalisation, the conversation will ask what approach to infrastructure planning Europe should adopt in an increasingly resource-constrained environment.

Related content:

• Policy Paper | Beyond the grids package: a modernised and resilient energy system by Friends of Europe, 25th February 2026
• Spotlight Session | AI: a critical driver of change with Laura Cozzi, IEA, and Adam Elman, Google, 23rd September 2025

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