- Only 44-47 of the Netherlands' 186 large data centers publicly reported energy and water usage
- The EU hides raw data behind efficiency labels, which make local judgments hard
- EU criticized of breaching Aarhus Convention
A new Lighthouse Reports investigation has found most European data centers are still obscuring their actual environmental impacts from the public despite EU rules aiming to improve transparency around energy and water reporting.
Among the included metrics are water and energy consumption, renewable energy use, waste-heat use and cooling efficiency, however while they may be reporting to governments, Lighthouse Reports argues that obtaining this information as a member of the public is far harder.
The report also criticizes the EU for exposing efficiency labels, much like your household appliance, rather than the actual raw data.
European data center reporting isn't all that transparent
Without access to the raw data, communities and policymakers can have a hard time judging the environmental impact of a proposed or operational data center, because even the most efficient hyper scale campus will still consume huge amounts of electricity and water.
In a Netherlands example, of the 186 500kW+ data centers operating in the country by late 2025, only 44 offered public electricity consumption figures and 47 offered water consumption figures.
However, Lighthouse Reports claims that Netherlands reporting is actually among the most transparent, and after trying to make similar attempts across all 27 EU member states, numerous requests were denied because they didn't possess the relevant information or because they deemed it confidential.
"The Commission has bowed to confidentiality clauses demanded by the industry," Lighthouse Reports concludes.
The group has since one on to file a complaint under the Aarhus Convention, claiming the EU is breaching the Convention's guarantees to "rights of access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice in environmental matters."
TechRadar Pro has asked the European Commission for a response to the report and subsequent complaint, but we did not receive an immediate response.
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