When it comes to data centres, looking to the US is misleading. The European model

Water? What water? It’s only needed for drinking and washing, because data centres are cooled using closed-loop systems. Electricity? An average data centre consumes less than an average electric steelworks. The internet? It won’t be siphoned off, but enhanced. So is it all a load of rubbish, then? Are the accusations filling the news really just a pack of lies? Or, on the contrary, are we witnessing the official defence of those who are building, at an ever-increasing pace, what are being called the factories of the new technological revolution? Let’s try to cut through the myths and propaganda.

The Cloud and Development Act, approved in June by the European Union, refers to “at least tripling the capacity of data centres over the next 5–7 years”. In Europe, the energy consumed by these centres has been rising for at least three years, and in Italy it is forecast to account for around 3 per cent of national consumption. In the United States, this figure could reach as high as 12 per cent by 2028. There are three main challenges: operational continuity – just as the internet, they can never be switched off; a demand for ‘clean’ energy (in the US, fossil fuels such as gas and coal are used); and cooling systems that do not consume large quantities of water, typically drawn from rivers or water reserves (this is one of the problems that US data centres have not yet resolved).

The No Centre has not yet got its act together; perhaps it’s the sweltering summer, or perhaps it’s a Pavlovian reaction urging us to repeat the unrepeatable (such as the assault on the TAV), but many fear that, once the holidays are over and the American news has bounced back from across the Atlantic, something will set the wheels in motion. This would be disastrous for a phenomenon that, quietly and gradually, is emerging from the shadows, attracting international investment, creating jobs and, above all, narrowing the digital divide that separates Italy from the rest of Europe – particularly northern Europe.

On 24 July, the Council of Ministers declared two new programmes, involving investments totalling 8 billion euros, to be of “overriding national strategic interest”. The first, “Equinix for Italy”, involves the construction of seven new data centres in the municipalities of Settimo Milanese and Cusago, representing a total investment of 4 billion euros over the period 2026–2033. The entire energy requirement will be met by renewable sources thanks to a specific agreement that has already been signed. Around 1,500 workers are expected to be employed during the construction phase, with over 500 direct and indirect jobs once the project is fully operational. Equinix is the leading American multinational in this field, which has long regarded Italy as a fertile and profitable market. The second programme, the “Cavour Hyperscale Campus”, involves the redevelopment and conversion of the former “Galileo Ferraris” power station in Trino, in the province of Vercelli, into a data processing campus of national and European significance. It is designed for a total capacity of between 300 and 400 megawatts, with an investment of around 4 billion euros. The aim is for it to become operational in two years’ time. During construction, an average of around 1,200 workers will be employed, with peaks exceeding 2,000, whilst once fully operational, the campus will provide around 300–350 highly skilled jobs and generate an estimated 1,000 additional jobs in related sectors.

This has led to an increase in the concentration of data centres in the north, particularly in Lombardy and Piedmont, with Emilia and Veneto also featuring prominently. On this side of the Apennines, there is only the Rome hub, which ranks second after the Milan hub. According to the most up-to-date map, there are 262 centres in Italy: 99 in the Milan area, 28 in the Rome area, 10 in Emilia-Romagna, 25 across Veneto (9 in Padua), Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige, just 9 in Puglia, and 5 in Campania and Sicily. This is a natural distribution, as the greatest use of the internet is concentrated in large urban areas, but as it stands, it appears excessive. This, too, can become a source of unease, albeit in the opposite sense: the south could counter any ‘No Centres’ in the north with ‘Yes Centres’. These are double-edged infrastructures: on the one hand, they are the consequence of existing demand; on the other, they can become a driving force. Retelit, founded by Angelo Moratti with 22 centres; Noovle, part of the TIM group, with 13; and the Florence-based Aruba with 12, are the top three players. In recent years, the Italian data centre market has recorded some of the highest growth rates in Europe (Ida 2025 data). Installed capacity has risen from 80 megawatts in 2018 to 287 MW in 2024. It is expected to reach one gigawatt within two years. By 2030, investments totalling 21.8 billion euros are forecast for construction and fit-out.

The fundamental issue concerns energy and water consumption, but the public debate is dominated by the American model, whilst the European and Italian models are very different. Directives from Brussels and Italian regulations, such as the one approved last June by the Lombardy regional government, demonstrate this. Take the Lombardy case: the use of drinking water is banned; energy sources must prioritise renewables (‘carbon-neutral’); and the heat generated must be reused rather than wasted. The fact remains that data centres are energy-intensive, even though, unlike steelworks, operators do not receive incentives on their utility bills. This is one of the anomalies highlighted by Ida, the trade association. It may therefore be useful to compare a data centre with an electric steelworks of a comparable size. According to estimates, both facilities consume around one terawatt-hour (one billion kilowatts used in one hour) each year. These are huge figures, let’s be clear. This means that the energy issue (in terms of both quantity and quality) is truly central. One question remains: why are data centres, in particular, being demonised? Perhaps because the new frightens us and we are used to the old?