Political Demands

Political Demands

Digitalisation has an enormous leverage effect on all value creation and innovation systems in the economy. Its innovation and impact potential, as well as the associated challenges, must be given greater economic weight and be recognised in policy concepts.

The demands in detail

Digital infrastructures in international competition: Strengthening Germany as a data centre location

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  1. Data centers are the foundation of digitalisation, serving as the physical prerequisite. Only with sufficient connectivity and capacity of data centres can fast and reliable digital services be provided for critical infrastructure, businesses and individuals. In light of comprehensive global digitalisation, this is a fundamental requirement for Germany’s future success and international competitiveness. Therefore, policymakers must actively strengthen Germany as a data centre location.
  2. Specifically for new research and application scenarios in the field of artificial intelligence, it is absolutely essential to create positive framework conditions for the establishment of energy-intensive but highly efficient AI data centres. This is all the more important as the demand for computing power through AI will grow exponentially. Germany can thus play a central role in the future segment of artificial intelligence.
  3. Policymakers at the federal, state, and municipal levels must take a holistic view of digital infrastructures, strengthening, promoting, and expanding them. The German federal government must therefore more strongly drive the rapid expansion of nationwide fiber optic networks and ensure broad 5G coverage for mobile Internet across Germany. Public Wi-Fi hotspots are needed in every municipality. Only through this combination can digitalisation be designed to be as energy-efficient as possible.
  4. The federal, state and municipalities must speed up application and approval processes and make regulations for the operators of digital infrastructures more pragmatic. Streamlined procedures are also essential to rebuild or modernise data centres as quickly as possible, thereby providing data with an energy-efficient and high-performance home in Germany in the future.

Digital infrastructures in the context of supply security: Reducing electricity costs and advancing the energy transition

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  1. Electricity costs in Germany are already among the highest in Europe, which poses a significant competitive disadvantage for operators of data centres in this country and jeopardises supply security. The tax and levy burden on electricity for data centres must be reduced to a competitive level. A possible industrial electricity price must also apply to data centres, as digital infrastructures likewise depend on a secure and stable power supply.
  2. The German federal government must prioritise and accelerate the energy transition. The consistent expansion of renewable energies is a fundamental prerequisite for enabling operators of digital infrastructures and other electricity-intensive industries to contribute to achieving Germany and Europe’s ambitious CO₂ targets in practice.

Digital infrastructures and sustainability: Designing the industry’s potential in a practical way

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  1. Sustainable digitalisation must be in align with the performance and competitiveness of Germany as a digital location in order to continue fostering innovation. To achieve this, the characteristics and business models of digital infrastructures must be taken into account when developing future measures.
  2. Instead of focusing solely on national legislative initiatives and certification approaches in the area of energy efficiency, policymakers must act at the European level and in close co-operation with industry.
  3. Waste heat from data centres represents a valuable CO₂-free and climate-friendly energy resource. However, there are currently too few opportunities to feed the waste heat into local or district heating networks on a large scale. One possible solution could include mandatory purchase obligations for heating network operators or the integration of waste heat supply requirements with municipal heat planning.
  4. Policymakers must further expand basic and applied research into the sustainable increase of energy efficiency for existing and future digital infrastructures. Additionally, the development and deployment of natural, largely climate-neutral refrigerants for data centres requires further support.
  5. The excessive efficiency requirements in the new Energy Efficiency Act, with a PUE value of 1.2 or better, overestimate the currently available cooling technologies that can do without significant water consumption. Furthermore, this hinders the use of (less efficient) natural refrigerants. The regulation must be oriented towards the current technical possibilities and must not overburden the data centre industry.