Greece makes data centres pay host communities €20,000 per MW a year

A new Greek government law on data centres and the electricity market has come into force, requiring data centres to pay host communities €20,000 per MW each year, Balkan Green Energy News reports. Municipalities receive 75% and individual consumers 25%, the same model used for renewable energy plants, in a bid to ease local mistrust.

The law requires at least 60% of a data centre's power to come from renewable sources; a late change lets imported electricity count, which matters for the planned Greece-Egypt interconnector. Investors who only partly build a site now lose a proportionate share of their guarantee rather than all of it.

Investment interest in Greek data centres is about €10 billion, according to sector sources, and grid operators have received applications for 11 GW, up from 5 GW earlier this year.