"AWS has moved quickly to flood the European continent with its elastic compute fabric, but while it may take two years to bring a new datacenter online, securing power for the facilities can take up to seven years, Pamela MacDougall, who heads energy markets and regulation for AWS EMEA, said in an interview with Reuters this week."
"According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in some European datacenter meccas, like Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin, this wait can extend to as much as a decade."
"Since ChatGPT's debut in 2022, datacenter power consumption has skyrocketed, with typical rack densities jumping from 6-12 kW to upwards of 140 kW, with 600 kW systems slated to start rolling out next year. Along with greater power consumption, AI workloads, particularly training, can be extremely spiky, with utilization jumping from just a couple of percent to 100 percent in a fraction of a second."
AWS's European datacenter expansion is facing major delays due to aging electrical grids and long interconnect lead times. Securing power for new facilities can take up to seven years and, in major hubs like Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin, the wait can reach a decade. Similar grid connection delays appear in U.S. hotspots such as Northern Virginia. Rapidly rising datacenter power consumption driven by AI workloads has increased rack densities and produced highly spiky demand, challenging grid operators and utilities. European permitting processes for grid upgrades are slow, prompting a proposed European Commission rule to cap permitting to two years.
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