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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The Nordics, long seen as a magnet for data center investment thanks to their stable climate and abundance of renewable energy, are now weighing limits on the growth of the power-hungry facilities as surging energy demand forces a rethink. At the center of the debate is Denmark, the first of the Nordics to confront the question head-on, as the formation of a new government and a spike in grid access requests have meant a pause on new projects. Data centers around the world are increasingly facing pushback due to concerns about their energy use. In the U.S, Maine recently came close to a data center construction ban and in Pennsylvania, the backlash could harm incumbents ahead of elections. Other states, including Virginia and Oklahoma are considering moratoriums. Only two European countries have enforced full moratoriums on data centers, namely the Netherlands and Ireland. Both member states have since eased restrictions under certain conditions. But grid pressures are spreading across the continent, as the AI boom adds to an acceleration in electrification that was already being boosted by the energy transition and digitalization.
The 'hunger games' of energy policy
In March, Denmark's state-owned grid operator Energinet introduced a temporary pause on new grid connection agreements due to an "explosion" in capacity requests, a spokesperson told CNBC. Around 60 GW of projects are waiting for connections. That far exceeds Denmark's peak electricity demand of around 7 GW. Data centers account for nearly a quarter (14 GW) of the 60 GW potential new grid connection projects, the spokesperson said.
"If you cannot get your AI workloads located in Denmark, you'll just move them somewhere else, and that is what we will see. Pernille Hoffmann Managing director of the Nordics at Digital Realty
An extension of the moratorium can't be ruled out, Data Center Industry Association (DDI) CEO Henrik Hansen, told CNBC. "We have to be realistic and look at what is actually available. It's not possible to really just go berserk with all kinds of connection agreements, because the power is not available. We have to lean into this discussion and maybe also discipline our own industry a bit more." He added that the spike in applications has resulted in a "fantasy" queue, where the gap between what's available and what's been requested is growing. The industry therefore, needs to take a closer look at projects that might not be as viable, he said, adding that the association is calling for more criteria to determine who should be given the highest priority and fastest connections. "We argue very much for the need to clean up that queue and look into stronger criteria in terms of maturity, actual investment decisions, customers and also the societal value," Hansen said. For some countries like the Netherlands, choosing between who should get access has been reduced to a debate about what's more important: a data center or a hospital. Sebastian Schwartz Bøtcher, country sales director at energy management specialist Schneider Electric , described the debate on LinkedIn as the "energy policy hunger games" between data centers and businesses. He suggested that specific industries should not be singled out. His sentiment was echoed by Tobias Johan Sørensen, senior analyst at think tank Concito, who said that no one should be put at the back of the queue, but there should be different queues based on a set of criteria.
The pause in Denmark is due to last three months or until Energinet can conduct an overview and new measures have been implemented to increase capacity. In order to start making decisions on how to prioritize the many access requests that are clogging up the queue, new political agreements and adjusted regulatory frameworks will need to be made, Energinet noted. No political decisions have been made as Denmark is currently in the process of forming a new government following a general election. The energy and climate ministry declined to comment. Prior to the elections, Energy Minister Lars Aagaard told local media that he would investigate the possibility of granting priority grid access to Danish customers, putting data centers at the back of the queue. "I suspect that data centers and battery parks, among other things, are taking up much of the available capacity in the electricity grid," Aagaard told business news outlet Finans in January, according to comments translated by Google. It was against this backdrop that questions around moratoriums and who should get priority energy access dominated discussions at the Data Centers Denmark conference in Copenhagen last week.
The risk of falling behind
Gone are the days when you could build data centers silently, Joana Reicherts, EMEA datacenter government affairs director at Microsoft , said during a panel moderated by CNBC at the conference. The statement was echoed by other hyperscalers and operators as they look to engage more with the communities that are waking up to the reality of having huge server warehouses in their back yards. Denmark had around 398 MW of installed data center capacity in 2026, with an additional 208 MW under construction. That's set to grow by 1.2 GW by 2030, according to the DDI Association. Hyperscales make up 60% of Denmark's current capacity.
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