Can Europe Build Data Centers Without Giving Up Its Climate Goals?

A plan to funnel the heat given off by data centers into nearby homes has run aground in Germany. Across Europe, policymakers are weighing AI ambitions against climate objectives. Earlier this year, the German government laid out an ambitious plan: By 2030, it would double the scale of the country's data center fleet, and quadruple the amount of compute available for running artificial intelligence models. The idea was to minimize Germany's dependence on the United States for access to AI--a point of concern across Europe--and boost its faltering economy. However, Germany has found that its AI ambitions are butting up against its climate commitments.