Residents of Kronstorf, Austria, mobilised earlier this month, with around 400 people protesting Google’s planned data centre outside the Upper Austrian regional government headquarters in Linz. The project's first phase alone could consume up to 1.31 terawatt-hours of electricity per year, a figure equivalent to the annual consumption of 375,000 households. This massive energy demand highlights the escalating environmental cost of unchecked digital expansion across Europe, a continent simultaneously fortifying its borders against those displaced by climate breakdown.
The proposed data centre, Google’s first in Austria, covers approximately 50 hectares, an area roughly the size of 70 football pitches. Construction began in April of the same year, with the first phase expected to become operational next year, in 2027. Local inhabitants, numbering around 3,500 in Kronstorf, voiced deep concerns about a lack of transparency surrounding the project. They raised unanswered questions regarding its cooling systems, water usage, and the potential impact on the River Enns.
Christina Gruber, an organiser of the protest, freelance artist, and aquatic ecologist, stated, "I believe we need a rethink when it comes to this endless growth and expansion." Andrea Kollmann, a 53-year-old lawyer who travelled from Vienna to join the demonstration, described the project’s advancement as "much too quickly," adding that "everything is extremely non-transparent, nobody knows anything."
The Environmental Toll of Digital Expansion
Google maintains that the centre will support growing demand for cloud and AI services, create around 100 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs, and strengthen Austria’s digital infrastructure. The company also claims its data centres are among the most energy-efficient globally. However, critics argue that even highly efficient facilities still consume vast amounts of electricity and water, contributing significantly to the climate crisis that disproportionately affects the Global South, driving migration Europe then criminalises.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, attended by politicians and company representatives, Thomas Stelzer, the governor of Upper Austria, declared the centre would send "a strong signal for Upper Austria as a business and innovation location." This rhetoric of economic growth often overshadows the environmental and social costs borne by local communities and, ultimately, by those forced to move due to climate-induced instability.
Europe's Contradictory Priorities
The Kronstorf protest is not an isolated incident. Europe is already home to hundreds of data centres, yet it lags behind the United States in capacity. The growing number of proposed data centres across the continent has triggered widespread protests over environmental impact. Earlier in September, Scotland halted new hyperscale AI data centre approvals due to environmental concerns. In Spain, residents of the Aragon region have launched legal action against a massive data centre buildout by Amazon. Amsterdam has imposed a moratorium on new data centres over space and power concerns, while Denmark has moved data centres to the bottom of its priority list for grid connections, warning of strain on its power grid.
Francesca Musiani, an internet specialist at the French National Center for Scientific Research, observed that these protests have exposed a "tension between this rapid expansion of AI and climate objectives." She highlighted broader questions about digital governance in Europe, asserting, "For me, this is part of what sovereignty should mean in practice: the capacity of different levels of society to participate in shaping the infrastructures on which they depend." This capacity for democratic control is routinely undermined by corporate interests, whose expansion fuels the very conditions that necessitate the criminalisation of movement at the borders of Fortress Europe.