As digitalisation accelerates, data centres are a vital and quickly growing infrastructure across Europe and the world, supporting our ever-growing use of cloud services and storage, AI, streaming services and more.
However, their rapidly increasing energy demand is a challenge. They also have a substantial environmental and climate impact, mainly due to their need for large quantities of cooling water and their CO2 emissions, if the energy that fuels them is not decarbonised.
Energy-efficient, sustainable data centres
Data centres are responsible for about 1.5%, or 415 Terawatt-Hours (TWh), of the world's total yearly electricity consumption. Projections indicate that their consumption is set to more than double towards 945 TWh by 2030, primarily due to the substantial growth of energy-intensive accelerated computing, which is used mainly for AI purposes (source: ‘Energy and AI’, IEA).
The EU aims to triple its data centre capacity by 2035.
To measure the energy consumption and the environmental and climate impact of EU data centres, greater transparency from data centre operators is key. The Energy Efficiency Directive introduced an obligation for the monitoring and reporting of the energy performance of data centres.
A data base for reporting
A European database, prepared by the Commission, collects and publishes data, which is relevant for the energy performance and water footprint of data centres with a significant energy consumption.
The Delegated Regulation on the establishment of a common Union rating scheme for data centres (EU/2024/1364) sets out the information and key performance indicators for the reporting obligation.
The Commission has taken several steps to help EU countries and reporting data centres to better understand the European database and fulfil their reporting obligations
- User manual for accessing the European database (3 September 2025)
- Reporter guide (3 September 2025)
- Frequently asked questions and guidance (28 July 2026)
- List of national contact points and information resources (11 March 2026)
For questions on the delegated regulation and/or the reporting scheme please contact: ENER-B2-DATA-CENTER
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (ENER-B2-DATA-CENTER[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu).
For questions when using the reporting platform, please log in to the platform and use the 'contact us' form (top right corner).
Assessment and analysis
The Commission will regularly assesses the energy efficiency and sustainability of EU data centres that have reported their data and indicators. In July 2025, the Commission published a report that includes an analysis of the data submitted in the 2024 reporting period.
In addition, the Commission also provides an online dashboard presenting the aggregated data foreseen in the directive and in the annex of the delegated regulation.
Next steps
As part of the new impetus for the energy efficiency, the Commission is preparing a Data Centre Energy Efficiency Package.
It will contain an assessment of the data submitted under the reporting scheme for data centres, introduce a rating scheme for data centres in Europe, and launch the work on minimum performance standards for data centres in Europe.
The Commission launched a call for feedback, running from 26 March – 23 April 2026, to collect feedback on its draft regulation shaping a common EU-wide rating scheme for data centres in the EU.
Documents
In 2025, for the preparation of the rating scheme, the Commission ordered a second study on the energy performance and sustainability of data centres.
In 2023, for the preparation of the reporting scheme, the Commission ordered a study on the energy performance and sustainability of data centres.
Related links
Legislation
- Delegated Regulation on the establishment of a common Union rating scheme for data centres (EU/2024/1364)
- Energy Efficiency Directive (EU/2023/1791)