Assessing 70 third party data centre developments projects across 12 European countries a new report called Data Centre Developments in Europe – 2021, concluded that total capex is expected to reach €9 billion to 2023. The continent is on track to see the development of more than 850,000 m2 of potential raised floor space with over 1,500 MW of power once complete.
The major hubs of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris are expected to see "relatively low levels of growth", with Germany ranking seventh out of 12 markets on percentage terms, while France came in 10th and the Netherlands 11th.
The report included UK figures and the country was forecast to see "marginally the highest increase" in data centre space, but in terms of percentage growth only managed to come nine out of 12 surveyed countries.
Instead, activity will focus on the so-called Tier 2 markets of Ireland, Italy, Austria, Spain, Switzerland and Poland. The report said the shift would be transformative, with the new Ireland campuses planned by CyrusOne, K2 Data Centres and Echelon Data Centres more than doubling potential capacity.
In Italy, new developments by Aruba, Equinix and Vantage Data Centers will boost Italian space by more than 60%.
Growth in emerging metro areas is a driving force of the trend. The report said data centre construction in Europe is booming, with the first phase of build outs to appear during 2022. Compared with 2019 to 2020 the number of new projects from 2021 to 2022 has increased by 50%.
The report read: "The growth in new facilities in Europe reflects the spread of data centres to smaller metro markets in Europe who are now catching up with the larger FLAP markets (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris) with large campus developments. The relative lull in data centre investment in 2019 to 2020 a result of the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in new projects scheduled to start from 2021 and 2022."
