Report: UK data centre market growth lags Europe despite soaring demand
Consultancy Kearney says the UK is Europe's second-largest data centre market, yet its demand is expected to grow just 17.6% annually to 2030 — ahead of only Germany (16.2%) and well below Ireland (36%), Finland (37.6%) and Norway (36.8%). The firm blames not weak demand but the difficulty of building cheaply and quickly, citing energy availability, land costs and grid connection speeds: typical UK and Western European sites cost around €2.25 million per MW, versus as little as €600,000 per MW in the Nordics. "What has changed is that power and land are scarce enough that the next wave of capacity must match the workloads that genuinely need to be close to users, customers, and national jurisdictions," said Kearney's European Data Center Lead Christoph Neunkirchen, adding that "everything else will go where it is easier to build."
If costs and grid delays persist, new AI-oriented data centre capacity may shift toward the Nordics rather than the UK, which the government says needs at least 6GW of AI data centre capacity by 2030.
- UK annual data center growth anticipated to be less than half seen in Ireland, Finland and Norway
- Nordic sites are costing €600k per MW, Western European sites are costing €2.25m/MW
- UK needs to tackle energy prices, land prices and grid connection speeds
Consultancy firm Kearney has branded the UK as one of Europe's slowest-growing data center markets, despite the government's positive narrative, and it could all be down to regulation.
At present, the UK is said to be Europe's second-largest data center market, however demand is only expected to grow by 17.6% annually between now and 2030, putting it second-last only to Germany (16.2%).
On the flip side, Ireland is slated to see an annual growth rate of 36% – around double the UK's.
UK data center market could be on the decline
Kearney doesn't blame a lack of demand for the slower-than-average growth, but rather its poor ability to accommodate new infrastructure efficiently and affordably.
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