Europe Data Center Market: trends and forecasts for 2030

The years leading up to 2030 are expected to see the Europe data center market undergo significant transformations.

As digital data becomes an increasingly important aspect in modern life, issues like reliability, availability and instantaneity of data take center stage. In this context, data centers are expected to evolve in order to accommodate rising demands, becoming critical infrastructure for modern societies.

A report by Ember Energy serves as an indication of the scale of the Europe data center market expansion for the coming years: while those areas that were market leaders up until today (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin) will see data center demand growth of +55% by 2030, Nordics and countries in southern Europe are expected to see a +110% growth.

As such, the exponential growth in demand will require the Europe data center market to transform in order to provide reliable services while also meeting growing scrutiny and regulations.

In this context, the data center market in Europe is evolving to become an increasingly complex ecosystem with its own intricacies, distinct to others such as the Southeast Asia data center market.

These include unique data privacy and environmental regulations, for which both the Europe data center colocation market and the Europe data center cooling market emerge as strategic options.

In this article, we analyze the foreseeable trends in the Europe data center market and how developers are moving to respond in changing times.

Europe data center market overview: why 2030 is a critical milestone

The run-up to 2030 is characterized by major transformations where factors like regulation, technological innovation and market movements are converging to paint a complex picture.

In this landscape of different elements coming together, the following two stand out as key markers of the coming years:

Growing demand for data centers. As economies based on data continue growing and generative AI takes centerstage, data centers are expected to expand their capacities towards new boundaries. This will require major innovation efforts in fields like data center cooling and energy efficiency so that centers are capable of accommodating expanding rack densities and GPU-intensive workloads reliably.
Escalating scrutiny on data centers’ environmental footprint. Initiatives like the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact have seen more than 100 operators across Europe agree to make data centres climate neutral by 2030. Beyond this initiative, data centers’ environmental impact is increasingly a strategic area to consider. As such, key developments in the coming years will involve a move towards carbon-free energy, water consumption reductions and data center cooling efficiency.

As a result, the massive scaling of data center infrastructure for the year 2030 is accompanied by efforts to ensure sustainable operations.

Market value, growth and key drivers

Global research firms have quantified the expected growth in the Europe Data Center Market in the coming years:

According to Global Newswire, the market is projected to reach USD 97.30 billion by 2030, rising from USD 47.23 billion in 2024 thus expanding at a CAGR of 12.80%
Market Data Forecast sees the market growing to reach USD 133.24 billion by 2033, expanding from USD 72.05 in 2024 and rising at a CAGR of 7.07%
According to Grand View Research, the data center construction market’s value in Europe is expected to reach US$ 97,417.5 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 12.5%

Key countries and emerging regions

As seen in the report by Ember Energy cited above, significant shifts are anticipated in the coming years regarding each territory’s share of the overall Europe data center market.

The report cites how “countries with lower levels of grid congestion” will see major increases in data center demand, including the Nordic and Southern European countries. Meanwhile, regions that have been more established recently (known as the FLAP-D markets) will experience growth, though at a more moderate pace.

For instance, the report cites how “In Sweden, Norway and. Denmark, data center electricity demand is expected to triple by 2030”. Countries like Austria, Greece, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, and Slovakia are also forecasted to “see an increase of three to five times by 2035 compared to 2024 levels.”

The move, according to the report, will respond to data center developers “seeking locations where grid capacity isn’t strained”. This points to one of the key trends that will shape the Europe data center market in the immediate future: the strategic role of energy in data center operations.

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Europe data center colocation market: the rise of shared infrastructure

What is colocation and why is it growing in Europe?

In the lead-up to 2030, there are different strategies which data centers are expected to employ in order to deal with both growing demand and more intense regulatory scrutiny.

Among these strategies, data center colocation stands out as a key movement: the outsourcing of data center services (physical space, power, cooling, and connectivity) to a third-party facility.

Recent years have seen an increased focus on the Europe data center colocation market, pointing directly to the benefits offered by this model, which include:

Speed-to-market and less upfront investments for companies looking to expand their capacities and having access to new markets. Such is the case of hyperscale data centers, which are largely pushing the Europe data center colocation market’s growth: an Uptime Institute survey mentions how “almost two-thirds (61%) of colocation providers currently host hyperscale tenants.”
In line with trends like edge computing and the capacity to minimize network latencies.
Useful for compliance with the GDPR, which requires strict data localization.

Trends in the Europe data center colocation market

A report by Mordor Intelligence describes colocation facilities as retaining 63.2% of revenue share in 2024 in Europe.

Moving forward, Grand View Research projections see the market value of the Europe data center colocation market growing at a CAGR of 15.2% from 2023-2030.

A movement that is part of a wider, global trend: the global survey by Uptime Institute cited above found an expected “sharp increase in the proportion of colocation workloads between 2023 and 2024”, which “will change only slightly through 2026.”

Meanwhile, another publication by Uptime Institute shows “colocation companies report more growth than their enterprise counterparts by 15 percentage points (...), with twice as many reporting annual growth rates of more than 20%.”

Europe data center cooling market: innovation and efficiency trends

With energy efficiency expected to assume an even greater role in data centers, interventions to improve data center cooling are gaining more and more importance.

In this context, a series of technological advancements are pushing boundaries in data center cooling efficiency, working in alignment with developers’ current needs.

3 catalysts driving the need for efficient cooling today

Rising rack densities driven by AI and other advanced computing in the coming years require advanced cooling solutions capable of guaranteeing equipment reliability. According to Uptime Institute, “82% of enterprises say that they are expecting more demand for higher power densities in the next two to three years.” This, in turn, means cooling equipment will need to level up to support the subsequent rise in cooling needs, supporting high-density racks operating at full capacity.

Climate-related regulations are increasingly putting the focus on data centers’ energy consumption. From the European Green Deal to the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), a number of European-wide rules are requiring operators to comply with strict environmental standards. With data center cooling being a major contributor, achieving energy efficiency involves implementing advanced cooling technologies capable of minimizing the centers’ environmental footprint. Moving forward, the Europe data center cooling market is seeing low-carbon, energy-efficient cooling infrastructure stand out, as well as solutions that offer a circular perspective such as data center cooling and district heating.

Energy cost optimization, as concerns around achieving energy efficiencies are translating into more sophisticated cooling solutions capable of using less power per kilowatt and achieving optimized PUE.

The advanced cooling technologies gaining ground

Current innovations in the Europe data center cooling market are already pointing towards some of the key technologies that will be shaping what cooling looks like in the immediate future.

As such, the following are some of the key cooling solutions breaking new ground and allowing data center operators to push for efficiency:

Liquid cooling and immersion cooling. Both strategies replace conventional air cooling by harnessing liquids’ outstanding efficiencies in heat transfer. Liquid cooling involves circulating a liquid to directly remove heat from IT hardware; meanwhile, immersion cooling is based on submerging hardware in liquids capable of absorbing heat safely and efficiently. These liquid solutions are capable of efficiently handling the amount of heat produced by higher rack densities and thus provide an advanced cooling solution for the coming years.

- Free cooling. Territories in Northern Europe are expected to take advantage of the possibilities of free cooling. This technique involves using air that is naturally cold to, when available, bring equipment temperatures down. An opportunity available in certain locations to reduce the centers’ energy use, bringing operational costs down while also meeting environmental regulations.
- AI-assisted thermal optimization. AI-based systems and automations are algo expected to play a key role in helping operators optimize their data center cooling. Based on machine learning and real-time monitoring, these systems are being implemented to maximize thermal optimization by adjusting parameters to real-time conditions.

The role of PUE and ESG in data centers’ cooling strategies

Power Usage Effectiveness or PUE is understood today as a major indicator of data center efficiency and environmental impact.

As such, transparency around PUE values is increasingly required, as both citizens and authorities demand data centers to contribute to achieving Net-Zero goals.

It’s likely that data center operators will be required to become proficient in driving down the centers’ environmental markers beyond PUE, so that they include a wide range of environmental indicators.

Data centers’ contributions to society and issues around operators’ governance are also expected to attract more and more attention. As data centers’ operations are understood as critical for societies, scrutiny is also growing around their impact from a broad perspective. Issues like labor practices, community impact and data privacy are gaining more significance, with both public authorities and citizens putting a focus on data center practices and compliance.

As such, operators that are able to meet these demands will be able to develop a series of advantages: from more reliable and efficient operations to building ESG that translates into a solid reputation and business success.

Forecast to 2030: what’s next for Europe’s data center market ecosystem?

The trends seen across this article point towards numerous movements in Europe’s data center ecosystem in the coming years.

Rising densities and power demands combined with data centers’ increasingly important role in societies are pointing towards a set of challenges for operators. This requires data centers to step up in their strategies to meet users and authorities’ concerns, with ESG playing an increasingly important role.

Strategies such as colocation are emerging as key expansion tactics that align with Europe’s unique requirements in terms of sovereignty, data protection and strategic locations for reasons related to energy sources.

The resulting ecosystem is a complex one, where sustainability and compliance stand at the heart of successful operations.

In this context, technologies related to data center cooling are central to design data centers that align with current and future requirements.

In this context, ARANER emerges as a trusted partner to develop sustainable and compliant data center cooling solutions.

We put our thermal engineering expertise to work to develop cutting-edge data center cooling solutions that align with the needs of each project and are in line with the Europe data center market and ecosystem.

Get in touch with us and discover how we can help.