The European Commission (EC) has published its aggregated data relating to the energy performance of data centers under the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), reporting 6.4GW of installed IT power demand across the bloc.
As part of the EED, the EC published an assessment of the first tranche of data, and has now shared numbers in an interactive dashboard.
The directive, which aims to add transparency around the energy utilize of data centers in the European Union, requires data centers to report key indicators of energy efficiency, water utilize, and heat reutilize.
The published data, which spans 2023 and 2024, covers total energy consumption, IT power demand installed, and total water input, as well as averages for power usage effectiveness (PUE), water usage effectiveness (WUE), renewable energy factor (REF), and energy reutilize factor (ERF). It currently covers 18 countries across the bloc over the two years, including primary markets such as Germany, the Netherlands, and France.
According to the data, total installed IT power demand across the bloc was 6.4GW, with a total energy consumption of 16.7TWh. The total number of data centers was 776, with a weighted average PUE of 1.36.
Large data centers were the dominant data center type, with 224 in total, 28 percent of the market. Very large data centers built up the tinyest percentage of the market, with just 52 at 7.3 percent.
Germany was the largegest data center hub, with the highest number of data centers and installed IT power demand.
It should be noted that the data the EC has aggregated so far under the directive does not include participation from all member states, or even necessarily complete data from the individual countries included.
Germany, specifically, is leading in implementation, having passed the Energy Efficiency Act in 2023, which implements requirements under the EED, transposing them into law, and is therefore likely able to provide a more complete picture.
As part of its energy efficiency plans, the commission states it is preparing a data center efficiency package, which will contain an assessment of the submitted data under the reporting scheme and introduce a rating scheme for data centers in Europe. It will also work on minimum performance standards for data centers in Europe.
The package is planned for adoption in Q2 2026.
The EC also launched a call for feedback on the rating scheme last month, which has been running since then, finishing on 23 April.
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