Europe's AI ambitions clash with climate goals on data centers
germany's plan to double data centers by 2030 faces hurdles due to eu climate commitments. data center firms must now only assess waste heat reuse, not implement it.
germany's plan to double its data center fleet by 2030 and quadruple ai compute faced opposition from climate commitments. the energy efficiency act required data centers to recycle waste heat, but firms complained it was impractical. in june, germany amended the bill, removing the reuse obligation. this move has been criticized for sacrificing climate targets for ai growth. multiple data center proposals have fallen through in germany due to these regulations.