Electricity demand from data centres in Europe could increase by 2-3 times by 2030, largely fuelled by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence applications.
That’s according to a recent report from Bloomberg Intelligence (BI), which suggests this increase in demand presents a challenge for companies like EDF and Rolls Royce, which are working to build next generation nuclear reactors but may miss the opportunity to meet this increasing power requirement.
BI suggests that the demand for renewable energy sources such as solar, battery storage, and offshore wind is likely to increase as companies seek to power their data centres.
Europe currently hosts about 15-20% of the world’s data-centre capacity, with the UK projected to see its energy use from these facilities rise sixfold by 2035.
Madrid and the Nordic regions are expected to experience rapid data-centre growth, driven by their access to power and land.
For example, Iberdrola anticipates that power usage for data centres in Spain could increase as much as 18 times by 2030, reaching 10% of the country’s total electricity demand.
However, the report also highlights a concerning trend: Europe’s nuclear capacity is set to decline by around 5% from 2023 to 2030, as several reactors are being phased out and few new ones are coming online.
