Poland's growing role in Europe's data centre market

The European data centre market is changing. Fast.  

The growth of AI, cloud, and machine learning workloads has meant a greater demand for data centres. While the FLAP (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris) hubs remain important anchor locations, the sheer demand for large-scale, sustainable computing power means we need to look to more locations.  

The need to explore new locations arises as challenges like land availability, planning restrictions, and grid capacity become more prevalent in Tier 1, metropolitan cities like London. This necessitates Tier 2 markets that can rapidly scale to address the challenges. Poland has emerged as a key location for this as it provides three key advantages: readily available large plots of land, a national commitment to decarbonisation, and an optimal position ensuring low latency across Central and Eastern Europe. Poland is not a replacement, but it is an important complementary location to enable Europe's overall computing capability. 

Cundall, in cooperation with the Polish Data Center Association (PLDCA), has been working to highlight Poland's growing role in the market by providing specialised design expertise.  

A natural cooling advantage

Given Poland's location, it has a natural advantage for data centres due to its consistently low ambient temperatures. Poland boasts the lowest annual temperatures in Europe, excluding the Nordics. For instance, Warsaw has an average temperature of 8.8 °C. This cooler climate is an asset to design, enabling facilities to maximise the use of free cooling methods during the design process. When compared to warmer regions like Madrid (12.89 °C) or London (11.48 °C), there is an increase in power usage effectiveness (PUE) and a significant reduction in overall cooling loads throughout the year.  

We have seen this in our design work across Northern and Eastern Europe. On projects in both Warsaw in Poland, and Odense in Denmark, our designs were influenced by the location of data centres. In a recent data centre in Warsaw, we used a free-cooling system using air handling unit corridors to draw cool air from outside across the servers, which contributed to energy efficiency.  

Unlocking Poland's waste heat recovery potential

Poland has the second-largest district heating network in Europe (by volume of heat supplied) with approximately 50% of the national population connected by 21,700km of pipelines. This provides an opportunity for data centres to transition from energy consumers to active energy partners. The extensive network of pipelines can serve as a massive, ready-made, off-take market for recovered heat, dramatically reducing the commercial risk of implementation. The scale of this opportunity is massive, and based on projected growth, the potential total annual heat generation is estimated at over 19,700TJ by 2030. This could cover up to 16% of the total national demand for district heating by 2035.  

Integrating data centres into the network is a rational approach that aligns with the national climate policy. Servers convert nearly 100% of consumer electricity into heat, providing a stable source and a predictable annual profile. This is at temperatures between 20 °C and 50 °C, providing a stale, low-grade heat that is thermodynamically comparable to geothermal energy. It can then be efficiently upgraded using high-temperature heat pumps to use in the district heating network.  

We have seen the impact of successful waste heat recovery in our projects with award-winning results. Our work on the design of a hyperscale data centre in Odense, Denmark, exported residual heat into a local district heating network. This system leveraged heat pumps to boost the temperature of the network, providing 165,000MWh of heat, free from carbon emissions. This supplied the needs of approximately 11,000 homes, and similar results are achievable in Poland. In fact, we have already designed waste heat recovery systems in recent data centre projects in Warsaw and conducted similar studies into viability in Poznan.  

Addressing the power grid

Poland has traditionally been associated with a high-carbon energy grid. However, the decarbonisation process is already underway. By 2030, Poland is projected to derive 72% of its energy from green sources and achieve 50% lower CO2 emissions.  

The transition is backed by substantial public and private investment, estimated at €185 bn into the country's green transformation and grid improvements as outlined in the National Energy and Climate Plan. The government has also approved a streamlined pathway for developing National Data Centres (KCPD). This has sparked further conversation with industry groups like the PLDCA and signals a clear, government-led intent. This commitment serves to de-risk investments for operators entering the region by supporting shorter project timelines and ultimately reducing the cost of new developments.  

A location with a workforce

Besides the benefits mentioned above, one of the biggest assets for building in Poland is the people. Technical capability is one of Poland's strongest assets, with the country producing over 80,000 STEM graduates annually.

A skilled local workforce is necessary to complete the design, construction, and operation of mission-critical infrastructure. This is particularly true when developing AI-ready facilities. Operators can benefit from lower real estate costs compared to Tier 1 countries while gaining access to local knowledge and experience on similar projects, which is hugely beneficial.  

AI continues to become a factor for new data centre builds, and Poland has taken steps to become a hub for this technology. As outlined in its 2035 Digitalisation Strategy, AI has been prioritised by the region for development. With the benefit of a well-trained workforce, operators can avoid costly delays and mistakes during design and construction.  

At Cundall, we have built a strong local team in Poland, one that is well-versed in local procedures, legislation, and permitting processes across hyperscale and AI-ready data centres.  

Why you should consider Poland

Ultimately, Poland's conditions make it favourable for data centres. Both its macro- and micro-environmental factors position the country well to support data centre growth. From an operator's perspective, the country is a location that can provide cheaper, faster data centre builds with lower sustainability impacts, ensuring they meet stringent global ESG and legislative targets. Waste heat recovery is not a voluntary feature, but a technical and commercial necessity that can utilise the company's existing infrastructure. Poland is truly a scalable location that should not be overlooked. If you are planning your next project in Europe, consider looking East.