Consensus on regulatory goals hides national differences

In recent reports, Uptime Institute Intelligence has warned that a wave of resiliency, security and sustainability legislation is making its way toward the statute books. Governments around the world — aware that digital infrastructure is increasingly critical to economic and national security (and consumes a lot of power) — have decided the sector cannot be left unwatched and unmanaged.

New laws relating to data center sustainability have attracted the most attention, partly because some of the provisions will likely prove expensive or difficult to meet. In Germany, for example, the Energy Efficiency Act, which is due to be debated in the Bundestag in September 2023, requires all new data centers to reuse a set proportion of their waste heat (with some exceptions) and have a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.3 or below. The draft legislation also specifies that older data centers will be required to reach this level by 2026. This means that if the draft legislation becomes law, some operators will have to make large investments to conform.