Bitkom: Germany needs more data centers

Berlin, July 21, 2025 – While the demand for cloud services and AI is growing rapidly, Germany lacks the necessary data centers in the background. Their capacity is currently increasing more slowly than demand, while leading nations such as the USA and China are massively expanding their capacities. Germany has an IT connection capacity of 2.7 gigawatts, while the USA is far ahead with 48 gigawatts and China with 38 gigawatts. To ensure that this gap does not continue to grow and to secure Germany’s digital sovereignty and competitiveness in the long term, the digital association Bitkom is now presenting an action plan for high-performance and sustainable data centers. “Data centers are essential for Germany’s digital sovereignty. The German government has recognized this and announced a data center strategy. A national and overarching strategy is now needed to strengthen the digital infrastructure. With the new action plan, we are making proposals on how data center capacities in Germany can be expanded quickly and permanently,” says Bitkom President Dr. Ralf Wintergerst.

In concrete terms, Bitkom is calling for data centers and telecommunications networks to be relieved of the burden of electricity costs. In Bitkom’s view, the very high energy prices compared to the rest of Europe represent a substantial competitive disadvantage. This must be flanked by measures for a needs-based and coordinated distribution of electricity grid connections. Wintergerst: “A stable, sufficient and sustainable power supply at internationally competitive prices is the basic prerequisite for a strong data center location”. Secondly, planning and approval procedures need to be simplified, digitalized and accelerated. In Germany, planning and approval procedures for new data centers take significantly longer than the EU average – and around six months longer than required by law. Thirdly, Bitkom proposes a revision of the regulatory framework. In particular, the Energy Efficiency Act would have to harmonize special German approaches that are far removed from practice with the European framework conditions, such as requirements for energy consumption efficiency and the proportion of reused energy. At the same time, the use of waste heat could be significantly strengthened through tax incentives for consumers, better municipal heat planning and the expansion of modern heating networks. From Bitkom’s point of view, the creation of suitable space is also important. Data centers should be seen as an opportunity for municipalities and the targeted designation of suitable areas for data centers should be part of regional development strategies. “Data centers are the backbone of digitalization. Hardly any company or private household can do without the services of data centers, and public administration would also no longer be able to function without data centers,” says Bitkom President Wintergerst. “Germany must position itself to be more digitally sovereign and resilient – and this is only possible with a strong and powerful IT infrastructure.”

To Action-Plan-Data-Centers-2025.

Further links

👉https://www.bitkom.org