Continued heatwaves are putting data centres and other digital infrastructure ‘under pressure’, with such services requiring ‘significantly more cooling capacity’, new analysis from real estate consultancy Drees & Sommer has suggested.
“Heat was long considered a marginal issue for data centres,” commented Mathias Franke, head of data centre consulting at Drees & Sommer. “Today, many operators are finding themselves trapped in a heat trap: Temperatures are rising from the outside, and the heat load from AI applications and increasingly powerful chips is increasing from within. If cooling capacities are not adjusted in time, disruptions and even costly outages are imminent.”
A recent analysis from First Street, a company specialising in physical climate risks, found that some 54% of global data centre capacity is located in markets exposed to significant heat or drought stress.
Separately, a March 2026 study by the University of Cambridge found that data centres can have a ‘heat island’ effect of around 2°C in urban areas, with increases of up to 9.1°C recorded in extreme cases.
Data centre development
The findings come amid a surge in new data centre development in many European countries – Germany, for example, recently adopted a new National Data Centre Strategy, through which it aims to double domestic data centre capacity by the end of the decade.
“AI is fundamentally changing the requirements for data centres,” Franke added. “These facilities not only consume more energy, but also emit significantly more heat into their surroundings. Operators will have to take this into greater account during planning and operation.”
Planning ahead
As the consultancy noted, operators should prepare for future heatwaves by assessing the capabilities of existing cooling systems in specific locations, upgrading emergency power infrastructure, and incorporating long-term climate projections into facility design.
It cited research by Google and the University of Pennsylvania suggesting data centres will require an average 11% increase in cooling capacity by 2044, with some locations needing as much as 48% additional capacity.
Water-based cooling systems are also expected to play a more important role as AI servers become more power intensive, Franke added.
“Operators need to assess what outside temperatures their cooling systems can withstand and how prolonged heat waves affect their reserves,” he said. “Efficient cooling concepts are no longer just a matter of operational reliability, but increasingly also a legal requirement. Anyone still relying solely on air cooling is essentially guaranteeing their cooling problems for the next ten years.” Read more here.
