Filed under germany.

The 10% Nobody Budgeted For

Germany's Energy Efficiency Act requires datacentres commissioned after July 2026 to redirect at least 10% of their waste heat — a rule public since 2023 that arrived before the offtaker ecosystem could support it. Operators now completing fit-out are engineering around the exemption clause rather than meeting the target, because the district heating networks the law assumes do not exist at the required density. The 20% mandate in 2028 will not permit the same approach.