EU proposes A-to-G label for data centres over 500 kW – first labels from August 2027
The labels will show energy and water efficiency for facilities over 500 kW, and are the first step towards binding minimum requirements. But the scheme rests on a fragile foundation: only 36% of EU data centres currently report the required figures.
The European Commission on 21 September 2026 presented a delegated act introducing a common A-to-G labelling scheme for data centres across the union. The labels are to be generated automatically from figures that operators are already required to report, with the first labels expected from 15 August 2027. At the same time, the Commission opened a consultation on mandatory minimum requirements – a clear indication that the label is intended as preparation for regulation, not just transparency.
How the scheme works
The label is intended to give a comparable picture of a data centre's sustainability across four areas: energy efficiency, water efficiency, use of clean energy, and contribution to the power grid (Unite.AI).
The ratings are set according to fixed thresholds in the annexes to the act. Energy efficiency is measured using PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), where class A requires a PUE of 1.15 or lower, while class G applies to facilities above 1.9. Water efficiency is measured using WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness), with class A at 0.1 or lower and class G above 1.0 (Unite.AI).
The central move is that the labels are to be calculated automatically, once a year, from indicators operators already report under the reporting scheme introduced in 2024. The Commission claims this creates no additional administrative burden. The database has been in operation since September 2024, with reporting carried out in 2024 and 2025 (Unite.AI).
Who it applies to
The scheme is mandatory for data centres with installed IT capacity above 500 kW. For smaller facilities and for data centres not yet in operation, participation is voluntary – upcoming facilities can report the values they are designed or expected to achieve after two calendar years of operation. Data centres serving exclusively a member state's defence and civil preparedness are exempt from the reporting obligation (Unite.AI).
Why now
The proposal comes in the middle of the EU's push to triple data centre capacity over the next seven years, in the race to catch up with the US and China in artificial intelligence (AFP via TechXplore).
The figures behind the ambition are substantial. According to the Commission's own estimates, installed capacity is set to grow from around 12 GW in 2025 to 28 GW by 2030, driven in part by the spread of AI and accelerated computing (ForkLog). Electricity consumption is estimated to rise from around 68 TWh in 2024 to 114 TWh in 2030 – over 3% of the EU's total demand (Anadolu Agency). It should be noted that these projections come from the Commission's own material and have not been independently confirmed; the sources are also inconsistent about where the figures actually originate.
Vice-President Teresa Ribera framed the balancing act as the proposal was launched: "Tripling our data centre capacity cannot mean tripling the pressure on our grids, our water and our energy bills" (Unite.AI). The Commission also points to the opportunities: reusing around half of the waste heat from European data centres could cover the heating needs of four million households, according to Commission estimates (Anadolu).
The hole in the foundation
The scheme's weakest point is documented by the Commission itself. A report accompanying the proposal admits that compliance with the existing reporting rules is low: only 36% of data centres in the EU publish the required figures (POLITICO).
This creates an obvious tension: a label generated automatically from reporting data is only as good as the data it is built on. Why compliance is so low, and how the Commission intends to address the gap, remain unclear in the available source material.
Opposition and next steps
The industry has organised resistance. The European Data Centre Association (EUDCA) warned in April that the requirements would kill investment, and in June the organisation insisted that the EU must prioritise AI ambitions over climate goals (POLITICO).
Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen has meanwhile signalled that minimum performance requirements will come later, and that they will "put more pressure on those who may not voluntarily wish to be as sustainable as we want them to be", he said in an interview with POLITICO.
The timeline is tight. Parliament and the Council now have two months to review the delegated act – they can reject it, but not amend it. The delegated act does not enter into force until it has lain for 20 days after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, provided no objections are raised. The consultation on mandatory minimum requirements closes on 14 December 2026, and legislative proposals are planned for the second quarter of 2027. An evaluation of the scheme is due by the end of 2028 (Anadolu, ForkLog).
The open question
It is worth stressing that this is still a delegated act under consultation – not adopted legislation. Whether Parliament or the Council will raise objections is currently unknown. But the political framework is clear: the EU is using voluntary transparency as preparation for binding requirements, precisely as the capacity explosion increases pressure on both power grids and water resources. The question in the coming months may be whether a label built on data that barely two in five operators deliver can withstand being transformed from informative labelling into regulation with consequences.