In the context of the energy efficiency act planned by the German government, politicians and the Internet industry have recently engaged in extensive discussions on how providers of the digital infrastructure ecosystem can further improve their energy efficiency in Germany. The focus has been particularly on the data centre industry and the regulations surrounding the utilisation of waste heat.

Dr Béla Waldhauser, spokesperson for the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany comments on this week's last minute amendments to the German federal government’s draft bill for the planned Energy Efficiency Act.

eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme: “Sustainability and digitalisation are two sides of the same coin – digital technologies and applications are part of the solution to achieve the climate goals.” The study conducted by eco and Arthur D. Little examines the impacts of digital transformation on resource efficiency...

The Rhine-Main Infrastructure Network highlights challenges and solutions in the energy supply and provides corresponding solutions.

Energy transition, regulatory requirements and growing demands from artificial intelligence and digital ecosystems – and all this against the backdrop of skilled shortages. The challenges facing the data centre industry have increased rather than decreased over the past year. The Data Centre Expert Summit 2023 brought the data centre industry together in Dreieich near Frankfurt on 14-15 June.

The final vote on the German federal government’s planned Energy Efficiency Act is expected to take place on 22 and 23 June. The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures, considers the draft act in this form to be detrimental to Germany as a digital location and appeals to all members of the Bundestag to intensively scrutinise the Energy Efficiency Act and to take the concerns of the data centre industry seriously.

In an eco interview, Prof. Sandra Thomas talks about the influence of the data centre and telecommunications industry on the present business models and about the future of data processing.

Karl Kimmig is Head of the Data Center Segment at ABB in Germany. In an eco interview, he talks about high-availability data centres, energy efficiency and sustainability. ABB will provide more exciting insights on topics including data centres and sustainability at this year’s German language Data Center Expert Summit on 14 and 15 June.

Christian Schmitz, Director OpenSource at the German cloud provider plusserver, explains which factors can influence data sovereignty in an eco interview. He also talks about the potential of open source solutions and Gaia-X.

Tomorrow, Thursday, the German Bundestag will discuss the Energy Efficiency Act in its first reading. The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of the eco Association, considers the current version of the draft approved by the Federal Cabinet in April to be detrimental to Germany as a digital location.

Recent innovations and developments in AI have intensified the debate around data protection. Prof. Dr Anne Riechert, Board Member of the AI Frankfurt Rhein-Main Society gives a first insight into the topic and presents the activities of the AI Frankfurt Rhein-Main Society.

The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany calls for data centres to be included in the current discussion on the introduction of industry electricity prices. The German federal government should recognise the importance of the industry as the backbone of digitalisation and part of the solution in achieving climate goals.

To take stock of the German federal government’s digital policy, the Network Policy Forum will take place on 25 April with German Digital Minister Volker Wissing. In advance, eco Chair Süme formulates three core requirements for the implementation of the Digital Strategy.

The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany voices criticism on the draft for a new Energy Efficiency Act adopted yesterday by the German Federal Cabinet. While this act sets out the right objectives, the obligations it imposes on data centres to release their waste heat cannot be implemented in such a format and could lead to data centres relocating to neighbouring European countries.

Dr. Béla Waldhauser, spokesperson for the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, comments on the new draft act for a German energy efficiency law that was released this Monday, 3 April 2023.

In Germany, the amendment to the electricity price brake is expected to be passed in today’s cabinet meeting. eco and the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures are strongly critical of the amendment introduced by the Federal Ministry of Economics.

On the strength of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, the international data centre industry is supporting the climate goals of the European Commission. Dr Béla Waldhauser, Spokesperson of the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, is now once again a candidate for the upcoming board election.

With DC Smarter, founder and CEO Jörg Hesselink ensures that service technicians in the data centre receive more important information and recommendations even more efficiently – at the right time and in the right place.

In a three-question interview, plusserver CEO Alexander Wallner talks about opportunities and challenges for Germany as a digital location and what he believes should be at the top of the political agenda.

The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, initiated by the eco Association, denounces the Blue Angel guideline revisions planned by the German Environment Agency (UBA) as still unsuitable and impractical. Dr Béla Waldhauser, spokesperson of the Alliance for Strengthening Digital Infrastructures in Germany, comments.

On Monday, Hessen’s Digital Minister Kristina Sinemus presented a study on the status of the information and communications industry (ICT) in Hessen in Frankfurt. The study also highlights the importance of data centres for Hessen’s economy.

At the cross-competence group event “IoT CG/ Data Centre CG: Data Centres as an Integrative Element of Sustainable Smart City and Smart Building Solutions”, which was jointly implemented with ABB and its subsidiary Busch-Jaeger Elektro GmbH, eco Association started the discussion on the topic of smart ecosystems with various experts from the IoT and data centre environment.

On the occasion of the “G7 Multi-Stakeholder Conference on the Digital-Environment Nexus”, eco’s Managing Director Alexander Rabe will moderate the breakout session “Role of Data Centres: an integral component for sustainable and climate-neutral digitalisation?”.

Digital infrastructures are the basis for more CO2 savings and more sustainability – thanks to digitalisation. However, to fully exploit these potentials, more interdisciplinary cooperation is needed.

The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, warns against unrealistic obligations for data centre operators under the planned German Energy Efficiency Act. As part of the recently released draft act of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, waste heat levies of up to 40 per cent are included.

An electricity shortage in the energy crisis could have a negative impact on the operation of data centres and become a risk factor for user companies. Companies fear serious consequences for their business and call on the German federal government to include data centres in emergency plans.

Opencast lignite mining for power generation shaped the Rhenish region in the west of Germany for many decades. With the energy transition, the region is facing an economic structural change. But how can the former coal-mining region be transformed into an “Innovation Valley Rhineland”? Around 70 experts from the digital industry discussed this in Bedburg in October.

eco, bitkom and the German Datacenter Association (GDA) have published a joint position paper for a sustainable German data centre industry by 2030. In the course of an impending energy crisis, the three associations call for data centres to be recognised as system-relevant IT infrastructures, regardless of their size, and to be prioritised accordingly in the event of supply shortages.

eco has just launched a campaign website under the motto of “JOINTHESOLUTION: We are part of the solution – the Internet industry”. The campaign focuses on digital technologies and services that provide solutions to burning societal issues.

Dallas 560.17 Gbps, Frankfurt 12.43 Tbps, Hamburg 280.2 Gbps, Marseille 170.16 Gbps... and that's just this week. It might be the core season for holidays in northern hemisphere, but the data throughput at DE-CIX Internet Exchanges keeps on growing.