A look at the impact of data centers in Europe, including high electricity and water usage, as Big Tech gets tax breaks, subsidized energy and agricultural land
Marietje Schaake / Financial Times : Tweets: @fsistanford , @marialazaro , @wildebees , and @martintisne Tweets: FSI Stanford / @fsistanford : .@MarietjeSchaake urges Europe not to be blindsided by large tech companies who promise jobs, then milk energy and resources out of local communities in order to run their data centers. https://ow.ly/... @marialazaro : “While European leaders seek to curb the power of Big Tech, national and local governments are rolling out the red carpet. Tax breaks,and access to subsidised energy contracts and agricultural land, are facilitating the building of hyperscale data centres” https://www.ft.com/... Wessel van Rensburg / @wildebees : Data storage and transmission, as well as crypto mining, are already consuming about 2.5 % of global electricity. Data centers in Denmark account for 15 % of that nation's energy use by 2030, according to a study. In Ireland, it's 30% by 2028. https://www.ft.com/... @martintisne : EU local govts roll out the red carpet to Google & co data centres. End result: 30% (!) of Ireland's electricity usage by 2028 will be data centres, 15% of total Dutch energy use... and all this w no debate / total opacity. Great article @MarietjeSchaake https://www.ft.com/...