BRUSSELS, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Protests against large data centers, ranging from street marches to the occupation of a data center construction site, swept Europe on Friday and Saturday, highlighting tensions between the continent's artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions and the demands these facilities place on local resources.
Local residents, environmental organizations, trade unions and political representatives were involved in the "Stop Dirty Data Centres" campaign.
In Amsterdam, protesters entered a Microsoft data center construction site on Friday, prompting riot police to clear it. More than 200 people were arrested and had all been released by Saturday afternoon, Dutch broadcaster NOS reported.
In Warsaw on Friday, demonstrators gathered outside parliament chanting "People First, Data Second." Residents from nearby Piaseczno voiced concerns about planned facilities and collected signatures seeking a pause in permit applications for hyperscale centers.
In Dublin, hundreds of people gathered for the first-ever national protest against data centers on Saturday, The Irish Times reported. Community groups from several counties participated alongside representatives of opposition parties.
Data centers house servers that store and process information for services including cloud computing and AI. Opposition centers on their demand for electricity, cooling water and land, alongside noise and the distribution of economic benefits.
According to the Irish Central Statistics Office, data centers accounted for 23 percent of the country's metered electricity consumption in 2025, up from 5 percent in 2015.
Milos Simic, an assistant professor at Serbia's University of Novi Sad, said concentrated electricity demand could strain grids and potentially pass costs to ordinary consumers.
Residents also question whether investment promises translate into lasting local benefits.
"We call these data centers 'factories,' but in reality, hardly anyone works inside them, while they consume enormous amounts of water and electricity," Warsaw protester Jan Maksymak told Xinhua.
"AI companies are taking advantage of government support and public resources to generate greater profits, while shifting the costs of their development onto society," he said.
Yu Xiaohua, a professor at Germany's University of Goettingen, said the key issue was whether gains from technological efficiency improved public welfare and how those gains were distributed.
Campaigners called for a temporary halt to new large-scale developments, disclosure of electricity and water requirements, environmental assessments and meaningful consultation before projects proceed.
"Residents only found out when the fences started going up, and excavators arrived," said Anna Rzeznicka of a Piaseczno community campaign in Poland.
Iva Markovic, program director of Serbian environmental organization Polekol, said inadequate public participation could undermine trust in institutions and leave communities feeling forced to bear technological development's costs.
Protesters are also questioning public subsidies and asking developers to shoulder infrastructure costs.
European policymakers regard computing capacity as essential for AI, business competitiveness and reducing dependence on foreign cloud providers.
The European Commission's proposed Cloud and AI Development Act seeks to at least triple EU data center capacity within five to seven years and accelerate deployment.
The challenge is to expand capacity within local resource limits. Ireland's updated policy requires new data centers to provide matching generation or storage capacity and meet at least 80 percent of annual demand through additional domestic renewable electricity projects, with a transition period.
EU initiatives seek greater transparency on energy and water use, while researchers identify better siting, waste-heat recovery and flexible electricity demand as ways to ease pressure.
Future disputes will test whether developers and governments can turn those measures into credible benefits for host communities.
Nenad Stekic, an assistant professor at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Security Studies, expected closer scrutiny of permits and slower development in some locations, rather than a complete halt.
He said efficient infrastructure, public acceptance and predictable regulation would be important to Europe's long-term AI competitiveness. ■
