- Relief for energy-intensive digital infrastructure is necessary to prevent relocation abroad
- Wintergerst: “Data centres are the backbone of industry and the economy”
Data centres must be included in electricity price relief schemes. This is the conclusion of a legal opinion commissioned by the digital association Bitkom. The finding: such relief is not only permissible under European law, it is, in the view of the opinion, necessary in order for existing EU rules to achieve their intended objective.
“Data centres are the backbone of industry and the economy. If we want to protect energy-intensive industries, we must not exclude their digital infrastructure,” said Bitkom President Dr Ralf Wintergerst. “Without high-performance data centres, neither Industry 4.0 nor AI applications nor connected production processes can function.”
According to the opinion, current EU rules on electricity price relief are designed to prevent the relocation of energy-intensive sectors. Data centres are not included in the relevant list of affected industries, despite being an essential component of precisely those sectors the measures are intended to protect.
“If data centres are not built in Europe, they will be built where energy prices are lower. Environmental and security standards are often lower there as well,” Wintergerst emphasised. “If the EU wants to prevent industrial relocation, it must also safeguard the digital foundation of that industry.”
Data centres in Germany currently consume around 21 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year; by 2030 this figure is expected to rise to approximately 30 billion kilowatt-hours. Electricity costs represent the largest cost factor, accounting for roughly half of a data centre’s operating expenses. Unlike traditional production facilities, however, data centres are far more flexible in their choice of location. As the opinion
