The global struggle for raw materials, new technologies, and artificial intelligence (AI) is not merely a matter of commercial competition; it is a contest for dominance. AI, big data, semiconductors, and rare earth elements are being transformed into strategic arsenals serving speculative interests. Technological protectionism, sanctions, and opaque regulatory agreements are creating a new, multi-tiered architecture of power. Benefits, access, and participation in technological transition are increasingly concentrated among the powerful, while the rest are relegated to various margins, generating rising social and geopolitical tensions.
More than 11,800 data centers worldwide store, process, and manage the vast quantities of digital data produced daily by governments, businesses, organizations, and private individuals, as the digital infrastructures of the Fourth Industrial Revolution expand rapidly. These invisible giants constitute the backbone of the Internet and the digital economy, with the global data center industry currently valued at 242.72 billion dollars and projected to more than double, reaching over 584 billion dollars by 2032. With generative artificial intelligence and cloud computing growing at an exponential pace, the need for data centers appears almost inevitable.
Data centers have simultaneously become some of the most energy-intensive facilities in the world, as they require substantial amounts of electricity and water for server operations—data processing, storage, and transmission—as well as for cooling, given the significant heat generated by such equipment. They consume approximately 3% of the world’s electricity, and it is estimated that by 2030 they will absorb 8%–10% of global energy production. Their carbon and environmental footprint is up to fifty times greater than that of a comparable high-intensity industrial enterprise and is comparable only to the energy consumption of a city of 100,000 inhabitants.
Based on the extensive international experience accumulated from the operation of such centers in recent years, Greece—although a latecomer in this technological field—could not only learn from the “growing pains” of data centers and the strong objections and reactions they have provoked around the world, but also propose a new paradigm for these engines of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Data centers also bring to the forefront a series of critical questions that go beyond traditional concerns regarding energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, and their water footprint. They raise issues pertaining to who bears the cost of constructing and operating these infrastructures and their associated cloud services, how their economic gains are socially distributed, and the broader accessibility of these digital infrastructures.
As a country, we could take a further step by moving beyond the narrow imperative of merely setting thresholds for computational “needs.” It is necessary to develop a specialized spatial planning framework for data centers, analogous to those already in place for renewable energy sources, aquaculture, and tourism.
Engaging local communities in the planning and operation of data centers may prove decisive in preventing potential alienation of local populations and in reclaiming control over local resources—such as rare earth elements and the water required for server cooling, the labor involved in data training, and the energy reserves that sustain the centers’ operation.
Konstantinos Kouskoukis
Professor of Dermatology – Lawyer
B’ Vice President GDHI
President Hellenic Academy of Thermal Medicine
President World Academy of Chinese & Complimentary Medicine