From risk to resilience: how data centres can master global planning challenges

AI, cloud, and digital services are expanding at an unprecedented pace, pushing the data centre sector into new geographies and higher power densities.

Such rapid growth clearly presents a wealth of opportunity. But it is also bringing to the fore a sharper set of risks, with planning delays, grid constraints and an ever-evolving policy landscape imposing significant uncertainties on project timelines and budgets in almost every corner of the world. 

The good news is that with disciplined pre‑planning and expert guidance, these hurdles can be turned into advantages in both resilience and sustainability.

Foundations for success: pre‑planning that de‑risks delivery

Three issues dominate early feasibility assessments:

• Power availability and grid capacity: Load forecasts have been revised sharply upward. In the US, utility‑served data centres are expected to need 22% more grid power in 2025, with demand potentially tripling by 2030. Bottlenecks in interconnection queues and new tariffs aimed at curbing speculative requests add uncertainty to project timing and cost. 
• Water resources and cooling strategies: In water‑stressed regions, the approach to cooling system architecture presents permitting and community risks - operators are now increasingly scrutinised on water use and transparency by local authorities. 
• Environmental impact and compliance: Recast in 2023, the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) requires centres ≥500 kW IT load to report KPIs (PUE, WUE, renewable share, heat reuse) to a European database, with escalating scrutiny anticipated after 2025. 

Robust pre‑planning, however, can prevent costly missteps and help to compress schedules.

Ricardo’s expertise spans the primary decision points, offering risk modelling, feasibility studies and innovation roadmaps for thermal and power solutions. As a global engineering consultancy and end‑to‑end engineering services provider, our teams can design and implement distributed energy, battery storage, and CO₂‑reduction technologies, as well as offer advanced thermal management expertise drawn from our experience in sectors such as motorsport and aerospace. 

Balancing infrastructure with community sensitivities

Site selection for data centres requires a dual lens around infrastructure feasibility and social licence to operate, with special attention required to address common concerns from local communities around noise and light, land use, water and power consumption (and their cost implications), plus the perceived imbalance of local benefits.

Indeed, almost all core markets face familiar challenges:

UK: The UK’s designation of data centres as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) elevates resilience expectations and strengthens government collaboration. Planning near London, for example, is constrained by the limited availability of ‘powered land’, as well as expectations around biodiversity and water that requires developers to provide not only robust mitigation measures, but also evidence of community benefit.

EU: Europe’s leading data centre markets – the FLAP‑D hubs (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin) – face the challenges of grid saturation that could lead to the diversion of future investment to the Nordics and Iberia, for example, where power access and market conditions for renewables may prove more favourable. Policy and community expectations, meanwhile, are increasingly incentivising waste‑heat reuse and transparent reporting.

US: Northern Virginia and Texas offer examples of the opportunities and strains that derive from surging demand, tariff reforms to protect ratepayers, and calls from surrounding communities for transparency on energy and water management. Indeed, many market leaders in the US are partnering with specialists such as Ricardo to maximise local resillience, sustainability and competitiveness, including the introduction of zoning ordinances, noise standards and broader reporting requirements to ensure projects reflect community priorities.

The most effective countermeasures are usually both practical and visible, involving transparent engagement, biodiversity net gain plans, local workforce programmes, and open resource dashboards.

For example, forging partnerships for heat recovery – whether on an industrial, commercial or residential basis - can lead to the conversion of “waste” into community value through early stakeholder engagement and careful selection of technical approaches (specifically cold-plate and immersion cooling). Environmental footprints and permitting friction, meanwhile, can be minimised through battery energy storage (BESS) for distributed systems, clean UPS and bridging power, and post‑combustion CO₂ capture for gas‑fuelled generation. 

Navigating complex regulatory landscapes

Although regulation is tightening, this can often prove to be a growth enabler for operators who are fully prepared:

UK: CNI designation (2024) underscores resilience and security expectations; planning tracks Net Zero 2050 and biodiversity requirements. Developers gain coordinated support during incidents but must demonstrate robust operational and environmental controls.

EU: The EED mandates KPI reporting for centres ≥500 kW (first due September 2024; annually by 15 May thereafter). Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 sets the data fields for energy, water and heat‑reuse metrics — laying the groundwork for future minimum performance standards and rating schemes.

US: Pressure to disclose certain environmental performance metrics are rising from customers and investors, while states adjust water and energy codes, and some utilities introduce cost‑reflective tariffs to temper grid strain and shield households. 

Risks across jurisdictions include objections, schedule slippage and penalties for non‑compliance. Centre developers can mitigate these concerns through permit‑ready dossiers, environmental impact assessments, metering architecture, and compliance toolkits aligned to UK planning, EU EED reporting, and US regulatory expectations.

Policy trends and future‑proofing

The global direction is clear: greater sustainability and transparency.

Expect stricter carbon reporting, water‑use limits, and renewable sourcing mandates as governments reconcile AI‑era loads with climate targets.

Early movers will benefit from green financing, premium clients and preferential grid engagement increasing flow to projects with assured data, efficient designs and community benefit models.

Territories of note show why forward planning matters. Recent research in Ireland anticipates that data centres could consume ~32% of national electricity in 2026, triggering connection constraints and new criteria for flexible demand and onsite generation/storage — illustrating the pace at which policy can reshape feasibility.

Turning challenges into competitive advantage

Future‑proofing is not just technical, it is programmatic:

• Undertake grid‑readiness audits early; align modular phasing with interconnection schedules and local tariff structures.
• Select water‑sensitive cooling and heat‑reuse designs; publish resource dashboards to strengthen trust.
• Build a compliance‑by‑design metering stack that captures energy, water, and heat exports against EU, UK and US needs.
• Formalise community benefits and STEM/workforce programmes to accelerate approvals and enlarge local impact. 

Ricardo helps developers and solution providers navigate the complexities and design challenges, enabling clients to build and implement novel high‑performance solutions with confidence.

From distributed energy and storage to CO₂ capture, advanced liquid/immersion cooling, and clean UPS/bridging power, we bring cross‑sector engineering pedigree to deliver energy security for sustainable, community‑supported data centres.

If you are planning, expanding, or re‑tooling a data centre portfolio, our specialists can help you convert risk into resilience — from feasibility and permitting to Engineering, Performance and Construction delivery of grid‑ready, low‑carbon power and thermal solutions.

To talk to our team about how we can support your project please use the contact form below or get in touch by email via info@ricardo.com