Brussels wants to turn out your lights

For the first time in decades, the threat of rationing has returned to Europe. Countries are already beginning to ration fuel – with Slovenia recently becoming the first – as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz reduces stockpiles.

But the European Union is quietly preparing for a different rationing programme altogether: Electricity. And, unlike the fuel shortages caused by the Iran War, this is a problem entirely of the EU’s own making.

Data centres are eating up electricity around the developed world. While this has been a boon in some areas – Loudon Country, Virginia, for example, makes roughly half of its taxes from data centres – it has also created a massive backlash from locals due to the belief that the data centres have caused a rise in prices. But they also use incredibly high amounts of electricity. In the United States, they use roughly 4.4 per cent of electricity, a number expected to rise to roughly 12 per cent by the end of the decade. The EU average in 2025 was roughly 1.5 per cent, though in some countries it was shockingly higher: Ireland set the world record in 2025 when data centres consumed 22 percent of the country’s electricity.

Read more at Brussels Signal.