Hungry servers: data centres could consume up to 15% of Swiss electricity by 2030.
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In Switzerland, the number of data centres per capita is among the highest in the world, while the share of electricity they consume is among the highest in Europe. With some power grids already close to the limit, the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) could put them under further strain.
Data centres are multiplying across Switzerland – and so is public concern about their high energy needs.
A surveyExternal link by the NGO AlgorithmWatch CH found that 72% of Swiss residents believe new data centres should only be built if they are powered by renewable energy, and four out of five want more transparency in energy usage.
Meanwhile, the federal government has saidExternal link that meeting the country’s future electricity needs may involve a reconsideration of building more nuclear power capacity, raising fears of power shortages and even blackouts in the years ahead.
Data centres are central to running our hyper-connected world, from cloud services to AI applications. In Switzerland, they account for 6–8% of electricity consumption, with this share expected to rise as new centres are built. Globally, data centres use 3% of electricity – less than electric vehicles, air conditioners, or heavy industry – but demand could double by 2030 due to high-performance AI servers, according to the International Energy AgencyExternal link (IEA).
As Switzerland competes for digital relevance, its rapidly growing data centre sector will need careful planning and efficiency improvements to avoid overloading the power grid, as has already occurred in other countries.
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Swiss data centre density is among the highest in the world
Some 120 data centres are based in Switzerland, with more than tenExternal link new projects being built. This makes it one of the countries with the highest concentration of centres per capita in the world.
Several factors make Switzerland attractive for such data centres. Most electricity comes from renewable energy sources (especially hydropower) and nuclear, which means the carbon output for running centres is lower than in countries with a higher reliance on fossil fuels. The country is politically stable and there is a strong domestic demand for digital services, especially in the financial sector. Its relatively low average temperatures, which make server cooling more efficient, and its central location in Europe, also work in Switzerland’s favour.
Data centers are mainly concentrated around Zurich, the country’s tech hub. Here, giants like Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services lease space from local operators. The choice of Zurich is no accident: its proximity to clients and excellent fiber-optic connections make it an ideal location. To ensure fast data exchange and operational continuity, providers often develop multiple sites within the same area, creating digital clusters. Among the leading players are US companies Stack, Vantage and Equinix, and the Swiss firm Green Datacenter.
Currently, data centres in canton Zurich occupy more than 114,000External link square metres, the equivalent of 16 football fields.
Zurich’s grid is already stretched to the limit
According to the Electricity Company of the Canton of Zurich (EKZ), several areas of the upstream grid – the national high-voltage transmission network – no longer have the capacity to cope with additional power demand. “With the increase in the number of data centres, the challenges related to grid operation are also increasing,” an EKZ spokesperson told Swissinfo via e-mail. The EKZ says new substations are primarily being built to accommodate the growing demand from data centres.
As a result, some operators are moving into other cantons, like Aargau or Schaffhausen. “In Zurich there is hardly any land available for new data centres and energy availability is even more limited,” says David Schoch, head of research for the real estate services company CBRE.
Countries such as Ireland and the Netherlands, which also have a high concentration of data centres, have already restricted new construction due to grid saturation.
While Swiss national power demand isn’t yet critical, it could be soon, warns Louise Aubet, co-author of a reportExternal link on the environmental impact of information and communication technologies in Switzerland. “We are totally dependent on digital technologies. We must not underestimate risks such as blackouts, which can paralyse entire countries,” Aubet says.
Data centre consumption could rise rapidly
Over the past decade, Switzerland’s overall power consumptionExternal link has remained stable and per-capita use has fallen, thanks to milder winters and efficiency gains in buildings, transport and industry.
But this trend may not last. Data centres alone could consume 10-15% of Switzerland’s electricity by 2030, says Adrian Altenburger, professor at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. That’s more than the entire energy demand of canton Zurich in 2023.
An analysisExternal link by the federal technology institute (ETH Zurich) estimates that the country would need to generate or import an additional 4.6TWh of electricity to satisfy this demand – roughly the equivalent needed to light 800 trillion light bulbs.
Getting the necessary electricity through renewable energy will be challenging, according to Altenburger, since data centres consume the same amount of energy all year round, 24 hours a day. This constant demand is one of the factors prompting policymakers and experts to reopen debates about expanding the production of baseload electricity sources, such as hydro or nuclear power.
Switzerland will need careful planning to prevent its data centres from overloading the grid, says Altenburger. According to available data, they already consume one of the highest shares of electricity among digitalised countries.
AI could ‘drastically’ increase the impact of data centres
The rapid expansion of AI-based applications risks making Swiss data centres even more energy-intensive. Researcher Louise Aubet believes that AI will “drastically” increase the demand for power by data centres, potentially eating up the capacity created by efficiencies in other sectors.
Training large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT or Gemini is particularly hard on energy. Much of this training happens outside Switzerland – mainly in countries that dominate AI development and host the largest computing clusters, such as the US and China.
But if global demand for high-performance AI models continues to grow, Switzerland may feel pressure to build part of this capacity at home. This could mean expanding its Alps supercomputer or developing new infrastructure dedicated to training. Such an expansion would also align with the government’s ambition to strengthen the country’s digital sovereigntyExternal link.
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More efficiency and transparency
With AI set to drive a rise in electricity use, the question of efficiency becomes central.
“Data centre consumption will grow rapidly if we don’t use IT infrastructure much more efficiently,” says Matthias Haymoz, who heads the Swiss Datacenter Efficiency Association (SDEA). A 2021 studyExternal link from the Swiss Federal Energy Office estimates that more than 40% of efficiency potential remains untapped, and would be achievable via better IT use and management. Haymoz adds that most operators only manage the buildings, while customer-owned IT infrastructure is often excluded from efficiency efforts.
Angela Müller, director of AlgorithmWatch CH, welcomes operators’ efficiency initiatives but warns that the problem is structural. “We rely on the statements of the operators themselves, but we have no public data: we don’t really know what goes on behind those grey walls,” she says.
This lack of transparency contributes to public concern, Müller adds. “The population wants to know what the real cost of digitisation powered by AI will be,” she says.
Edited by Gabe Bullard/dos
