More than 100 campaign groups are holding coordinated protests across Europe on 6 and 7 November, demanding an immediate moratorium on new large data centres. The Stop Dirty Data Centres coalition wants construction paused at local, national and European level until there are clear rules on whether and where such facilities should be built.
What is happening
The two days of action bring together environmental organisations, digital rights groups and local residents’ campaigns. Planned activities include demonstrations, public meetings, information stalls, petitions, walking tours and cycle rides. The campaign website lists events in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Poland, Ireland, Denmark and Finland, while organisers describe the coalition as spanning 15 countries.
In the UK, where the charity Global Action Plan runs a petition under the same name, events include a photocall outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in London and a community day of action in east London. In Devon, campaigners are opposing a proposed 1.5GW data campus with battery storage on around 850 acres of farmland near Great Torrington. A march to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh is scheduled for 14 November.
The demands and the figures
The coalition’s central demand is a pause on new large-scale projects until frameworks decide whether facilities should go ahead and on what terms, with public participation. It does not set a size threshold for what counts as “large”. Concerns raised by member groups include electricity demand and household energy bills, water use, land take, housing, noise and emissions from backup generators.
In the UK, Global Action Plan wants the government to pause new developments until it has set out how many data centres are needed and what they are for, and wants operators to report power and water use. The charity estimates that more than 100 UK data centres are planned. Oliver Hayes, its head of campaigns, told The Register that “communities everywhere are fighting back”.
The protests come as investment accelerates. Euronews, citing PwC’s Global Data Centre Outlook, reports that annual European data centre investment is expected to reach €25–26bn in 2026, up from €12bn in 2020. Governments, including the UK’s, have meanwhile framed data centres as central to growth plans and have streamlined planning for large schemes.
Why it matters for modular and edge in Europe
The campaign is aimed squarely at large and hyperscale projects, not at small edge sites, and it has not drawn any formal line on size. Even so, the politics matter for the whole sector. Local planning resistance, water constraints and grid concerns are already reshaping national rules, with several European governments drafting new conditions on energy sourcing, efficiency and reporting in recent weeks.
For modular and edge operators, two effects are possible. Smaller, distributed facilities with modest power draws and short build times may face less opposition than multi-hundred-megawatt campuses, and some developers may present them as a lower-impact alternative. But any moratorium or new framework that is broadly drafted could also catch smaller projects, particularly if thresholds are not defined. Transparent reporting of energy and water use, heat reuse and community engagement are likely to become more important to winning permission, whatever the scale.
Industry bodies had not issued a public response to the weekend of action at the time of writing.
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