Europe · Germany
Data centres in Germany: what the new federal register shows
485 German data centres of 300 kW or more reported to the federal register for 2025, using 7.2 TWh. Only 319 (66%) publish their reports on it. Hesse, home to Frankfurt, has 102 of them but 62% of the energy. Source: Rechenzentrumsregister statistics and export, pulled 2026-10-11.
Updated 11 October 2026 · data build 2026-10-10 · how we know · corrections
485 data centres reported 7.2 TWh; 166 keep their reports off the register
Every German data centre of 300 kW or more must report to the federal register each year. The register publishes anonymised totals for all of them, and site reports for those that choose to publish there. Reporting year 2025. Measured
Energy used by all reporting data centres, by reporting year. Part of the rise is more sites reporting (361 → 485), not only more use.
Source: Rechenzentrumsregister, Statistik (BMWE/BAFA) · as of 2026-10-11 · energy: the register's size-class totals; IT load and averages: our arithmetic · Compiled by StackPath
Hesse has 102 of 485 sites but 62% of the energy
Frankfurt is Germany's data-centre capital. Hesse holds 30 of the 39 sites in the largest size class (10–50 MW of IT load). Measured
| Land | Data centres | 10–50 MW sites | Energy, GWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hesse | 102 | 30 | 4,467 |
| Bavaria | 92 | n.p. | ≥616 |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 84 | n.p. | ≥436 |
| Hamburg | ≥20 | n.p. | ≥109 |
| Lower Saxony | ≥25 | n.p. | ≥144 |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | ≥8 | n.p. | ≥8 |
| Baden-Württemberg | ≥60 | n.p. | ≥420 |
| Berlin | ≥21 | n.p. | ≥80 |
| Brandenburg | ≥12 | 4 | ≥174 |
| Saxony | ≥34 | n.p. | ≥245 |
n.p. = not published: the register hides a figure when a size class has too few sites to stay anonymous; "≥" sums only the size classes shown. Hesse's IT load is about 914 MW (our estimate from class averages). Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen, Saarland, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia: no figures published.
Download CSV ↓Source: Rechenzentrumsregister, Statistik (BMWE/BAFA) · as of 2026-10-11 · Compiled by StackPath
66% already meet the 2027 PUE limit; 2.5% of waste heat is reused
The Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG) sets a PUE (total energy ÷ IT energy; 1.0 is perfect) of 1.5 from July 2027 and 1.3 from July 2030 for existing sites, and 100% renewable electricity on paper from January 2027. Figures from the 319 sites that publish their reports on the register. Measured
Bands include the lower bound (1.3 sits in 1.3–1.5). Darker bars miss the 2027 limit of 1.5. The register's anonymised average PUE across all 485 reporting sites is about 1.6 (our count-weighted average of its size-class averages).
Download CSV ↓Source: Rechenzentrumsregister, Jahresmeldungen export (BMWE/BAFA) · Umweltbundesamt, 21 Sep 2026 · EnEfG § 11 · as of 2026-10-11 · bands and shares: our counts · Compiled by StackPath
The biggest names in German colocation and cloud don't publish here
The law lets operators publish their annual information on the register or elsewhere (§ 13 EnEfG). The 319 sites that publish on it belong to 165 operators and add up to 2,594 GWh, 36% of the energy all reporting sites used. Measured
| Operator (publishing on the register) | Sites | IT load, MW | Energy, GWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vantage Data Centers Germany GmbH | 6 | 64 | 358.4 |
| Hetzner Online GmbH | 26 | 31.2 | 266.2 |
| T-Systems International GmbH | 4 | 22.6 | 119.6 |
| noris network AG | 4 | 11.6 | 83.8 |
| SAP SE | 4 | 27.6 | 68.9 |
| Robert Bosch GmbH | 5 | 7.2 | 63.6 |
| Iron Mountain (Deutschland) Data Centre 2 GmbH | 1 | 9.8 | 62 |
| Atruvia AG | 5 | 20.6 | 56 |
| Amadeus GmbH | 1 | 8 | 51.3 |
| Vodafone Group Services GmbH | 1 | 12 | 50.9 |
| maincubes one GmbH | 1 | 6 | 45.9 |
| Leibniz Rechenzentrum der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften | 1 | 9.2 | 44.8 |
| NorthC Deutschland GMBH | 7 | 14 | 41.2 |
| Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH | 1 | 1.6 | 40.1 |
| Kyndryl Deutschland GmbH | 3 | 3.9 | 39.8 |
Fifteen largest by energy, from the register's annual-report export; operator totals are our sums.
We searched the published reports for the same list of large operators. Found: Telehouse (1), Vantage (6), Yondr (1), maincubes (2), Hetzner (26), T-Systems (4), SAP (4). None found for Amazon, AWS, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Oracle, Apple, Equinix, Digital Realty, Interxion, NTT Global Data Centers, e-shelter, CyrusOne, Global Switch, Data4, STACK, IONOS. Their sites may well report to the register (the anonymised totals include every reporting site) and publish elsewhere, as the law allows; absence here is not non-compliance.
Download CSV ↓Source: Rechenzentrumsregister, Jahresmeldungen export (BMWE/BAFA) · as of 2026-10-11 · name search: our check · Compiled by StackPath
Ireland's data centres used more electricity (7.7 TWh) than all of Germany's registered sites (7.2 TWh)
Different measures, so read the comparison as an order of magnitude, not a ranking. Estimate
Germany's figure counts only sites of 300 kW or more that reported, in final energy (mostly electricity). Ireland's is the CSO's metered electricity for all data centres. Ireland has no public site-level register: the CSO publishes a national total, and EPA annual environmental reports cover 16 large campuses, which drew an average 776 MW in 2025.
Source: CSO, Data Centres Metered Electricity Consumption · Rechenzentrumsregister, Statistik (BMWE/BAFA) · as of 2026-10-11 · comparison: ours · Compiled by StackPath
Our reading. The register is the first official count of German data centres, and it shows a market more concentrated than headlines suggest: one Land, Hesse, carries most of the load. It is also an incomplete public record. A third of reporting sites, and most large colocation and cloud operators, keep their reports off the platform, so site-level scrutiny of Germany's biggest data centres still depends on what each company chooses to publish. Rising totals from 2023 to 2025 partly reflect more sites reporting.
Two populations: the anonymised statistics cover every data centre that reported for the year (485 for 2025); the annual-report table covers only those that chose to publish on the platform (319). The register publishes size-class averages for connected IT load and PUE, so national IT load and the average PUE here are our arithmetic (class count x class average, summed); energy use is the sum the register publishes per size class. Size classes are the register's (by IT connected load; the top class is 10-50 MW and no larger class appears). The register's class averages of IT load sit below some class floors (e.g. 4.7 MW for the 5-10 MW class), which suggests missing values are averaged in; treat the IT-load total as approximate. Values suppressed for anonymity ('VnV') are left blank; a Land total is blank when any class is suppressed. Postal area 60 is Frankfurt am Main; the wider Rhine-Main cluster spreads into 61, 63 and 65. The 300 kW reporting threshold excludes small server rooms; Bitkom and Borderstep estimate national data-centre use above what the register covers (not compiled here). UBA flags data-quality issues in the reports (12% with IT load at or above total load; 4% with more heat than electricity). No reuse licence stated on the register; aggregates only, with a link to the register's own download.
Questions people ask
- How many data centres are there in Germany?
- 485 data centres with at least 300 kW of connected load reported to the federal register for 2025 (up from 361 for 2023). Smaller server rooms don't have to report, and the register can't show sites that failed to report, so the national total is higher.
- How much electricity do German data centres use?
- The 485 reporting sites used 7,225 GWh (7.2 TWh) of final energy in 2025, by the register's own size-class totals. Industry estimates of total German data-centre use are higher because the register misses sites under 300 kW and any that did not report.
- Where are Germany's data centres?
- Mostly in Hesse, around Frankfurt. Hesse has 102 of the 485 reporting sites, 30 of the 39 in the largest size class (10–50 MW) and 62% of the energy. Frankfurt's postal area 60 alone has 55 sites using 1,969 GWh.
- What PUE must German data centres reach?
- Under the Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG), existing data centres must reach a PUE of 1.5 or better from July 2027 and 1.3 from July 2030, and cover their electricity with renewables on paper from January 2027. Of the 319 sites publishing on the register, 211 (66%) already report 1.5 or better and 116 (36%) 1.3 or better.
- Does Ireland have a data-centre register like Germany's?
- No public site-level one. Ireland's CSO publishes national metered data-centre electricity use (7,662 GWh in 2025, 23.2% of the total), and EPA licence reports cover 16 large campuses. The EU's own database (Energy Efficiency Directive) is public only in aggregate so far.