Data centre power and cooling: Brussels faces Aarhus complaint as Senate bill stalls

The complaint, filed on Monday by Netherlands-based non-profit Lighthouse Reports, targets the European Commission's refusal to publish per-facility consumption figures. POLITICO, which first reported the filing, says the case will get its first hearing in November, when the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee decides whether it is admissible.

Lighthouse argues the Commission has built a "wall of silence" around data centre energy use. The complaint, lodged under the Aarhus Convention, a legally binding treaty the EU has been party to since 2005, says Brussels policy "denies or deters access to, and obfuscates understanding of, how data centers are performing." The Commission did not respond to POLITICO's request for comment.

At stake is a figure the Commission itself published: Europe's data centres burned through 20.7 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2025, roughly as much as Croatia consumes in a year, plus more than 8 million cubic metres of water. That is up 26% on electricity and 52% on water compared with 2024. The EU's energy chief, Dan Jørgensen, told POLITICO that if "these big power consumers" are not held to the bloc's objectives, "they will risk undermining our ability to live up to our own targets."

National data is patchy too

The gap is not only a Brussels problem. NL Times reported on Wednesday that fewer than a quarter of larger Dutch data centres publish figures on their electricity and drinking water use, one year into a research effort by Lighthouse with Trouw and other European outlets. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency, which collects the data for the EU, holds records on 104 of the 186 commercial data centres above 500 kilowatts that the Dutch Datacenter Association counted at the end of last year. Public figures exist for the electricity use of 44 and the water use of 47.

Statistics Netherlands puts Dutch data centre electricity use at 5.1 billion kilowatt-hours in 2024, or 4.6% of national consumption, a near doubling in five years. Grid operator TenneT projects 10% to 15% by 2030. RVO data disclosed this summer showed Microsoft's largest Dutch facility alone accounts for 1% of national electricity consumption; Google, with two large sites, does not disclose that number.

The regulatory backdrop is shifting. The Commission presented a transparency label last week, with minimum performance standards expected to follow, and the rules will require operators to grade energy efficiency, water usage and clean power uptake from A to G starting next summer. Lighthouse says ratios still hide actual consumption. As one MEP working on the EU's digital capacity push, Diego Solier, put it to POLITICO: "Transparency should be the starting point," though he added that it "must be proportionate" and should not force disclosure of commercially sensitive data.

Washington stalls on costs

In the US, the Senate on Wednesday blocked the Ratepayer Protection Act by 57 votes to 43, short of the 60 needed to advance. The Guardian reported that the bill would have pushed utilities to make data centres cover the cost of transmission, generation and distribution upgrades rather than passing them to households. Four Democrats joined Republicans in support; the House had passed it almost unanimously earlier in the month.

Democrats called the measure toothless. "Republicans' toothless datacenter bill completely misses the mark," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor, criticising a White House meeting with tech executives that produced what he called a "morally binding" self-regulation deal. Sponsor Jon Husted argued the opposite: "big tech should be paying their own way, not passing the cost on to local communities and states."

Power supply is the crunch point. Inside Climate News reported on Wednesday that administrative law judges in Texas recommended approval of El Paso Electric's 366-megawatt gas plant for Meta's $10 billion, 1-gigawatt data centre only if ratepayers are shielded from capital and operating costs. The judges found the utility failed to adequately consider alternatives and did not run a request for proposals; the $499 million McCloud facility, using 813 modular generators from Enchanted Rock, is still awaiting a vote by the five PUCT commissioners. Meta would carry the cost for five years, after which ratepayers could be asked to pay.

Canary Media reported on Wednesday that a bipartisan Senate permitting bill could expand high-voltage transmission and cut delivery costs by roughly $7 billion by 2035, citing analysis for the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. It is unclear how the package fares in the House, which is adjourned until after the November midterms.

Cooling and siting carry their own risks. ABC News reported on Monday that Goodman Group withdrew its A$1.2 billion Project Mars in Lane Cove, Sydney, 20 metres from the nearest house, citing a changed regulatory environment. And on Tuesday, Bain and Company said the AI industry needs $6 trillion in annual revenue by 2031 to justify infrastructure spending that could reach $1.5 trillion a year, with data centre size and cost doubling roughly every 12 to 16 months.

For now, the numbers that would let anyone check those claims remain mostly unpublished.