Data centres in Italy: growth opportunities in the context of slowing markets

In this context, the report of the Data Centre Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, 'Data Centre Economy: Italy at a turning point', appears to be very incisive. The numbers, moreover, leave little room for interpretation: 23 organisations (of which eight are new entrants to the Italian market) have announced the opening of 83 new infrastructures in the period 2023-2025, with potential investments of up to EUR 15 billion.

Important figures, within which it is above all in the Milan area that the match promises to have developments. With Milan and Lombardy in pole to also become the emblem of a more complex match played out between the USA and Europe, in particular France, which from this point of view is moving with determination inside and outside its national borders.

The numbers of the Milan Polytechnic's Observatory are also referred to in the introduction of the proposed proxy law 1928, presented to the Chamber of Deputies by Giulia Pastorella, a member of Azione, with other signatories of the same party. 'It is necessary as soon as possible,' we read, 'not only to provide for the regulatory framework of Data Centres, which to date are not recognised at the regulatory level, being identified as a generic industrial building, but also to define the approval procedures for the construction of new infrastructures'.

So who should have the ball? The regions, the municipalities or others? The obvious need is to standardise construction procedures throughout the territory by creating the conditions to facilitate development. "It has been calculated," Valerio Romano, Anitec-Assinform councillor in charge of the Twin Transition, explains to Il Sole 24 Ore, "that a latest-generation data centre requires an investment of over one billion, for which there are between two and three additional ones for the allied industries. We are talking about an extraordinary opportunity, all the more so now with the saturation of the 'Flap' region in Northern Europe'. In this framework, however, one of the problems to be addressed, Romano adds, 'is that of territorial inhomogeneity. Milan in turn risks saturation of the necessary resources. In order to have a development worthy of the name, all territories, from North to South, must participate'.

One point on which attention is being focused is that of sustainability, with warnings about energy consumption. "The issue is there, and should not be underestimated," replies Sherif Rizkalla, president of Ida, the Italian association of data centre builders and operators. "But the development that is possible thanks to data centres and their evolution must be taken into account. For example, a reduction of up to 70 per cent in waste with new data centres has been calculated compared to the average of 1 to 1, i.e. one megawatt wasted for every megawatt produced, that has existed to date. The energy efficiency of new data centres is far superior to legacy infrastructures. This is also why we need to facilitate their development by eliminating bureaucratic and non-simplification issues that weigh heavily".

Everything thus returns to the starting point: the need for a clear and unambiguous framework. "The national legislator,' emphasises lawyer Stefano Morri, Founding Partner of the Morri Rossetti law and tax law firm, 'has not yet dictated a rule to regulate these "new" entrepreneurial developments, which in reality have been present in Italy for twenty years, leaving their regulation to be arrived at through a cross-reading of different regulations: the Consolidated Environmental Act, the Consolidated Building Act, municipal regulations, and ministerial interpretations. And so questions remain that risk jamming the mechanism. An example? 'Generating sets inside data centres,' explains Andrea Grappelli, Partner of the firm, 'are classified by ministerial practice as "thermal plants for the production of electricity, steam and hot water". This classification does not take into account the fact that in data centres, the energy produced by the gensets is merely a production factor in an emergency phase and not a core business. Situations such as these risk impacting too much and holding back development'.