Europe’s Data Center Backlash Grows Amid AI Boom

Europe’s push to expand data-center capacity, driven partly by rising AI demand, is facing growing resistance over its environmental impact, pressure on power and water supplies, and effects on nearby communities. In the UK, a proposed large campus on London’s green belt has drawn local opposition over years of construction, traffic and noise, while officials cite limited grid capacity and substantial water needs as constraints on further growth. Greek data-center investors warn that new grid-connection rules—including fees, guarantees and renewable-energy requirements—could raise costs and undermine more than €10 billion in potential investment. Activists and industry observers alike argue that governments and developers must address local concerns and infrastructure limits as they pursue expansion.