Market comparison
European data-centre markets, side by side
On 14 October 2026 the comparison sets Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Zurich, Madrid and Helsinki against the same load, or any two to six of 12 markets: power cost, grid carbon, climate for cooling and the rules that apply, each figure dated, with its limits. Markets only, never individual sites, and no single winner.
At a glance
- Markets to compare
- 12
- 5 side by side by default
- Market comparison,
- Rules in force
- 6
- EU and national rules reaching the 5 default markets
- Market comparison,
- Default load at the meter
- 9,110 MWh
- a year: 1 MW of IT at 80% use and PUE 1.3
- Market comparison,
Compare the markets for your load
| Per market | FrankfurtGermany | AmsterdamNetherlands | ZurichSwitzerland | MadridSpain | HelsinkiFinland |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power cost | |||||
| Day-ahead wholesale price, meanEUR per MWh, 1 Oct 2025 to 30 Sep 2026 | 104.05 | 103.03 | 119.12 | 73.29 | 55.78 |
| Wholesale cost for your loada year at a flat load, before network charges, levies, taxes and margin | €948k | €939k | €1.09M | €668k | €508k |
| Business price before taxes and leviesEUR per kWh, 2026 first half, band 2,000 to 19,999 MWh | 0.1382pprovisional | 0.1445 | Not published | 0.1047 | 0.0842 |
| Business price after taxes and levies a business cannot recoverEUR per kWh, 2026 first half, VAT excluded | 0.1742pprovisional | 0.1824 | Not published | 0.1177 | 0.0852 |
| Cost for your load at that pricea year, all consumers in the band, not data centres | €1.59M | €1.66M | Not published | €1.07M | €776k |
| Grid carbon | |||||
| Grid carbon intensity, 2025g CO2e per kWh, lifecycle, generation-based | 334 | 254 | 39 | 154 | 57 |
| Emissions for your loada year, if the load drew the national average | 3,044 t | 2,311 t | 356 t | 1,398 t | 521 t |
| Climate for cooling | |||||
| Hours a year above 27 °C dry-bulbmean of 2016 to 2025 | 282 | 80 | 168 | 1,117 | 35 |
| Hours a year above 32 °C dry-bulbmean of 2016 to 2025 | 51 | 8 | 11 | 441 | 0 |
| Worst year above 32 °C dry-bulbhours, any of 2016 to 2025 | 95 | 24 | 32 | 508 | 0 |
| Hours a year above 20 °C wet-bulbmean of 2016 to 2025, limit for evaporative cooling | 100 | 94 | 120 | 63 | 54 |
Bars compare the markets within one row and do not change with your scenario. p marks a provisional value. London has no wholesale series here, so its wholesale cells stay empty rather than borrow another market's. Ireland's wholesale mean covers 99.7% of the 12 months. Zurich and London have no business price series, and Swiss network tariffs are not included yet.
How to read it
Wholesale is not your bill
The day-ahead price leaves out network charges, levies, taxes and the supplier's margin. The business price rows add them back, for the average business in the 2,000 to 19,999 MWh band, which is not the same as a data centre with its own contract.
Carbon here is a national average
The 2025 figure is lifecycle emissions of electricity generated in the country, divided by that generation. Imports are not counted, so Switzerland, Finland and the Netherlands are neither charged for what they import nor credited for what they export. It is not market-based and not hourly. The live grid uses a different, production-based method by hour, so do not compare the two.
Climate hours are a screen
Hours above a threshold show how often outside air alone cannot hold that temperature before any approach allowance. They come from hourly climate reanalysis at a 0.25 degree grid cell near each city centre, which smooths urban extremes. Zurich has more hours above 20 °C wet-bulb than Madrid, so a dry-bulb view alone would mislead anyone planning evaporative cooling.
Rules that apply
| Where | Rule | Status | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU: DE, NL, ES, FI | Reporting duty from 500 kW installed IT power, 7 items and 24 indicators, next report 15 May 2027 | In force | Directive (EU) 2023/1791 Art. 12; Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 |
| EU: DE, NL, ES, FI | Waste-heat use above 1 MW total rated energy input, unless a cost-benefit assessment shows it is not feasible | In force | Directive (EU) 2023/1791 Art. 26(6) |
| EU: DE, NL, ES, FI | Common rating scheme adopted 21 Sep 2026; in Parliament and Council scrutiny, extended 6 Oct | Adopted, not in force | Commission delegated regulation; see the regulation tracker |
| Germany | Applies from 300 kW non-redundant nominal connected load; 100% renewable electricity from 1 Jan 2027 | In force | EnEfG section 3 no. 24 and section 11 |
| Germany | Sites running before 1 Jul 2026: PUE 1.5 or lower from 1 Jul 2027 and 1.3 from 1 Jul 2030 | In force | EnEfG section 11(1) |
| Germany | Sites starting operation from 1 Jul 2026: PUE 1.2 or lower and a reused-energy share of at least 10%, rising to 15% and 20% for sites starting from 1 Jul 2027 and 1 Jul 2028, within two years of start-up | In force | EnEfG section 11(2) |
| Germany | Bill to relax the PUE limits to 1.6 and 1.4; committee hearing held 5 Oct 2026 | Proposed | Drucksache 21/8027 |
| Netherlands | New hyperscale data centres restricted nationally to two designated areas | In force | Staatsblad 2023, 492 |
| Spain | Draft Royal Decree: grid permits from 1 MW of access power tied to PUE 1.15 or lower and 80% renewable supply matched hour by hour; hearing closed 10 Sep 2026, no approval date | Proposed | Draft Royal Decree on data centre sustainability (MITECO); see the regulation tracker |
Checked 14 October 2026. The regulation tracker holds the detail and the next dates. Not covered yet: Swiss and UK rules (outside the EU, so the EED and the German act do not apply), Finnish data-centre tax treatment and the draft Finnish register, Amsterdam city limits, and grid connection queues, which decide timing in several of these markets. No national rules are covered yet for: Zurich, Helsinki.
What this page does not say
- It does not rank the markets or name a best place for a megawatt. The differences that matter depend on your load, timing and risk.
- It is not a quote. No row is what a specific data centre pays.
- It says nothing about individual operators or sites, and nothing about grid capacity or vacancy.
Your own comparison
Your own comparison is a members feature: any two to twelve of the markets, your IT load, PUE, utilisation and planned start, in a short dated report that shows which rules reach a site of that size starting on that date. It is not open yet.
Basis
Wholesale: time-weighted mean of day-ahead prices over the delivery days 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. Business prices: 2026 first half, band 2,000 to 19,999 MWh, values as published. Grid carbon: 2025 national lifecycle average. Climate: hourly reanalysis, 2016 to 2025. The default scenario is 1 MW of IT load, PUE 1.3 and 80% utilisation, which is 9,110 MWh a year at the meter.
Sources, checked 14 October 2026: Bundesnetzagentur (SMARD), Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5), Deutscher Bundestag, EUR-Lex (Official Journal of the EU), Eurostat, Gesetze im Internet (German federal law), Officiële bekendmakingen (Dutch official gazette).
Data: Energy-Charts.info, Fraunhofer ISE (day-ahead prices for Spain, Finland, Ireland and Sweden SE3).