The European Union will take a big step toward regulating energy and water use by data centers in September, when organizations operating data centers in EU nations will be required to file reports detailing water and energy consumption, as well as steps they are taking to reduce it.
The EU’s data center reporting rules are part of a larger regulatory package ultimately aimed at reducing energy consumption by 11.7% between 2020 and 2030. Regulators are targeting data centers because they are estimated to consume 2% to 3% of all energy used in the EU, with processing-heavy AI technologies driving the demand for greater computing power and more data centers.
