“So far, no one has assessed whether the growth in data centres is in line with the goals we have for our society. Nor does the system for allocating grid capacity take the Government’s own goals for the industry into account. In our view, the time has come for a new direction in data centre policy,” says Tore Tennøe, Director of the Norwegian Board of Technology.
Key findings
- Power demand is growing rapidly. Data centres’ grid-connected capacity has increased sevenfold since 2019, and the queue for new projects is more than eight times larger than what is already connected. In today’s allocation system, data centres win out over other industries because their owners often have more capital, their facilities can be located almost anywhere and they can be built quickly.
- Local value creation peaks during construction and is lower during operation. Operations provide few permanent jobs, and few of them involve IT development. The revenue generated by the digital services run on Norwegian data centres rarely stays in Norway.
- Foreign ownership dominates. Foreign companies own 90 per cent of data centre capacity in Norway, and a small number of foreign players also dominate the capacity reserved up to 2035.
- A Norwegian location does not automatically mean Norwegian control. The four largest facilities account for half of the capacity. Much of it has been built for a single company’s own services or a single customer, with little room left for others.
- Almost no excess heat is used. Using the heat requires a nearby recipient, early planning and a high enough temperature, and these conditions are rarely all in place at the same time. So far, data centres also do little to relieve pressure on the local grid.
- Land use is modest so far but increasing, and there is no overall national record of land take. Water use for cooling is expected to rise sharply, and Norway has no national overview of water use.
Download the report in Norwegian below:
Datasentre i Norge - vurderinger av samfunnsnytte
Recommendations due this autumn
This report does not take a position on which direction Norway should choose. It is the first of two reports on data centres from the Norwegian Board of Technology. The second will be published later this autumn and will present recommendations.
“Data centres are a key part of our society’s infrastructure, but given the current pace of development, we need to ask how much is appropriate and how policy can be designed to get the most out of our scarce resources. That is the aim of the next report,” Tennøe concludes.
Members of the expert group
- Sverre Gotaas, CEO of Herøya Industripark AS and Chair of the Norwegian Board of Technology
- Catherine Banet, Professor, Department of Energy and Resources Law, University of Oslo
- Magnus Korpås, Professor, Department of Electric Energy, NTNU
- Petter Røkke, Research Director, Thermal Energy, SINTEF Energy Research
- Stein Inge Knarbakk, Head of Department, Sigma2
- Øivind Anti Nilsen, Professor, Department of Economics, NHH
