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VerifiedReporting and efficiency duties

Germany wrote data centre efficiency into statute: PUE, renewables and waste heat

Section 11 of the German Energy Efficiency Act sets binding numbers for data centres: an efficiency ratio of 1.5 or below from 1 July 2027 and 1.3 or below from 1 July 2030 for existing sites, 1.2 or below for new sites within two years of commissioning, renewable electricity coverage of 50 percent and then 100 percent, and waste heat reuse shares.

The verdict

Verified

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Key facts

What the sources say

Record ID
AIA-2026-0022
Kind
Reporting and efficiency duties
Jurisdiction
Germany
Last verified
Added
  • Data centres in operation before 1 July 2026 must reach a power usage effectiveness of 1.5 or below from 1 July 2027 and 1.3 or below from 1 July 2030.
  • Data centres starting operation from 1 July 2026 must reach 1.2 or below within two years of commissioning.
  • Operators must cover electricity consumption on a net basis with 50 percent renewable electricity from 1 January 2024 and 100 percent from 1 January 2027.
  • Waste heat reuse shares of at least 10, 15 and 20 percent attach to sites starting operation from 1 July 2026, 2027 and 2028 respectively.
  • These are statutory duties in national law, not targets in a strategy document.
  • The consolidated law page carries no printed publication date, so this record uses the date it was read.

Figures

Every number, with who measured it and when

  1. 1.5 PUE ratio

    Power usage effectiveness ceiling for existing German data centres from 1 July 2027

    Energieeffizienzgesetz section 11, klimaneutrale Rechenzentren, gesetze-im-internet.de, primary source, as of .

  2. 1.3 PUE ratio

    Power usage effectiveness ceiling for existing German data centres from 1 July 2030

    Energieeffizienzgesetz section 11, klimaneutrale Rechenzentren, gesetze-im-internet.de, primary source, as of .

  3. 1.2 PUE ratio

    Power usage effectiveness ceiling for German data centres commissioned from 1 July 2026

    Energieeffizienzgesetz section 11, klimaneutrale Rechenzentren, gesetze-im-internet.de, primary source, as of .

What it changes

For an operator, a utility or a community

An operator in Germany faces a design constraint, not a disclosure duty: a site that cannot hit the ratio is out of compliance regardless of what it reports. A utility should expect waste heat offtake conversations to be driven by statute. A community near a German site can ask what share of its waste heat is reused and point to the section that fixes the minimum.

Sources

What this record was verified against

  1. Energieeffizienzgesetz section 11, klimaneutrale Rechenzentren, gesetze-im-internet.dePrimary · 15 September 2026

Related

Records that sit beside this one

Cite this record

Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0, with attribution. The record ID AIA-2026-0022 is permanent and is never reused.

In a sentence
According to the GAGE AI Infrastructure Atlas (as of 15 September 2026), germany wrote data centre efficiency into statute: pue, renewables and waste heat.
APA
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). (2026). Germany wrote data centre efficiency into statute: PUE, renewables and waste heat. AI Infrastructure Atlas. Retrieved 15 September 2026, from https://www.gage.academy/tools/ai-infrastructure-atlas/records/AIA-2026-0022-germany-enefg-data-centre-duties
MLA
"Germany wrote data centre efficiency into statute: PUE, renewables and waste heat." AI Infrastructure Atlas, GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education), 15 September 2026, https://www.gage.academy/tools/ai-infrastructure-atlas/records/AIA-2026-0022-germany-enefg-data-centre-duties.
Chicago
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). "Germany wrote data centre efficiency into statute: PUE, renewables and waste heat." AI Infrastructure Atlas. Last modified 15 September 2026. https://www.gage.academy/tools/ai-infrastructure-atlas/records/AIA-2026-0022-germany-enefg-data-centre-duties.
Permalink
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