Energy Consumption in Data Centres and Broadband Communication Networks in the EU | Research in context

European Commission Joint Research Centre · Published 2024-02-16 · Checked 2026-10-31

Data period: 2022 estimates; source inputs include earlier years.
Scope: EU-27 data-centre and telecommunications-network electricity use, treated separately.
Method: Literature and public data feed a spreadsheet model: national estimates where available, IT capacity or floorspace assumptions elsewhere, and economic/digital indicators for gaps.
Assumptions: Utilisation, PUE, power density, coverage adjustments and historical growth; lower and upper estimates vary selected assumptions.
Uncertainty: Most national data-centre estimates are modelled; small-centre counts and installed capacity are uncertain.
Funding and interests: European Commission JRC authorship. Separate project funding and conflicts were not identified in the reviewed front matter.
Reuse: The report grants CC BY 4.0 with attribution and indicated changes; non-EU third-party material is excluded. Original summary and links only; no charts, tables or underlying inputs.
Attribution: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Kamiya, G. and Bertoldi, P. (2024), Energy Consumption in Data Centres and Broadband Communication Networks in the EU, Publications Office of the European Union, DOI10.2760/706491, JRC135926. Licence: CC BY4.0. Read the licence.
Source notice: CC BY4.0 applies to the report unless otherwise noted. Non-EU third-party material retains its own rights. No underlying proprietary dataset, figure, photograph, logo or map is imported or relicensed. ComputeFinder provides an independently worded summary; no charts, tables, report passages or underlying inputs are reproduced.
What it cannot establish: Does not establish current demand, site performance, grid-queue positions, connection rights or available compute; not a forecast.

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