A study by Lighthouse Report in collaboration with Trouw and other European media outlets found that most data centers across Europe are not publicly disclosing their environmental impact, according to reporting published by NL Times. Researchers spent a year attempting to obtain data on data centers’ environmental footprint by invoking freedom of information laws in various European countries, with little success.
The European Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), which has been in effect for three years, requires data centers with an installed capacity of at least 500 kilowatts (kW) to report data including their energy and water consumption. In practice, compliance appears minimal.
In the Netherlands, the disparity is stark. According to the Dutch Datacenter Association, there were 186 commercial data centers with a capacity of 500 kW or more in the country at the end of last year. However, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), which collects information for the EU, has data on only 104 of them. The RVO also lacks crucial consumption figures: public data exists on the electricity usage of only 44 centers and water usage of only 47—less than a quarter of the larger Dutch data centers. The RVO indicated it possesses additional data on some facilities but did not provide specific figures.
Data centers have expanded significantly in recent years, driven by the growth of cloud services and AI applications. This expansion has corresponded with dramatic increases in resource consumption. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), data centers consumed 5.1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2024, representing 4.6 percent of the country’s total electricity consumption—a near doubling over five years. Grid operator TenneT projects that by 2030, data centers will consume between 10 and 15 percent of the Netherlands’ electricity supply. This growth is occurring amid grid capacity constraints that have left businesses, institutions, and housing developments on waiting lists for connections.
Data from the RVO revealed this summer that Microsoft’s largest Dutch data center alone accounts for 1 percent of national electricity consumption. Google, which operates two large data centers in the Netherlands, does not disclose this information publicly.
Water usage data is even more limited. In the Netherlands, data centers are estimated to account for approximately 0.1 percent of total water consumption. While this represents a small proportion, climate change is intensifying the need for conservation, as prolonged droughts and water shortages become increasingly common.
Key facts
- Most European data centers do not publicly disclose their environmental impact despite EU regulations requiring it
- In the Netherlands, only about 23% of the 186 large data centers (500+ kW capacity) have publicly available electricity and water consumption data
- Data centers consumed 5.1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in the Netherlands in 2024, or 4.6% of total national consumption, nearly doubling in five years
- Grid operator TenneT projects data centers will consume 10-15% of the Netherlands’ electricity by 2030
- Microsoft’s largest Dutch data center accounts for 1% of the country’s national electricity consumption