{"id":378707,"date":"2026-09-23T00:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=378707"},"modified":"2026-09-23T00:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:28:08","slug":"eu-introduces-new-data-center-rules-data-centers-must-disclose-energy-and-water-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/eu-introduces-new-data-center-rules-data-centers-must-disclose-energy-and-water-use\/","title":{"rendered":"EU introduces new data center rules: data centers must disclose energy and water use"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The European Union rolled out new data center transparency rules as part of its broader <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/paying-less-on-electricity-bills-this-is-the-eus-plan-to-achieve-it\" rel=\"noopener\">energy-efficiency framework<\/a>. They require public reporting on <strong>energy use<\/strong>, water consumption, and efficiency.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you run, manage, or buy large-scale digital infrastructure in Europe, you&#8217;ll start seeing standardized disclosures from data centers with installed <strong>IT power demand<\/strong> of 500 kW or more. Under the new rules, that should give you a clearer sense of the environmental cost behind cloud services, streaming, and apps.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Operators are expected to report total energy use, the <strong>share of power<\/strong> coming from renewables, water use, waste heat reuse, and a set of efficiency metrics. That should make it easier to compare sites, call out weaker sustainability claims, and see where a data center may be putting extra strain on local power grids or water supplies during heatwaves and droughts.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;re picking hosting or cloud partners, keep an eye on this, even though the EU rules don&#8217;t go as far as <strong>directly capping energy<\/strong> or water use.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can find the requirements in the European Union&#8217;s broader energy-efficiency framework.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European Union rolled out new data center transparency rules as part of its broader energy-efficiency framework. They require public reporting on energy use, water consumption, and efficiency. If you run, manage, or buy large-scale digital infrastructure in Europe, you&#8217;ll start seeing standardized disclosures from data centers with installed IT power demand of 500 kW &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/eu-introduces-new-data-center-rules-data-centers-must-disclose-energy-and-water-use\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;EU introduces new data center rules: data centers must disclose energy and water use&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9349,"featured_media":378706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[6771],"class_list":["post-378707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","content-category-ai"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9349"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378708,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378707\/revisions\/378708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378707"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=378707"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=378707"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=378707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}