1. Power First: A New Rule for Site Selection: Dr Minh K Le (Rystad Energy) reframed the industry's core premise: power, not land, is now the real constraint. Grid queues stretch 7-10 years in Frankfurt, London and Amsterdam, and European capacity is set to grow from 16GW to 36GW by 2030, much of it landing in markets like Spain and the Nordics where grid headroom exists. His advice: assess grid headroom before scouting land, and treat on-site generation as a parallel path, not a backup.
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2. The Demand Is Divisible, The Queue Is Not: Francesco Marasco (nLighten) argued that AI inference can be distributed to the edge, unlike training, yet grid queues are first-come, first-served regardless of size, 18 months where distribution capacity exists, versus 7-10 years for transmission-level connections. He questioned the model's own limits too, is edge deployment genuine innovation or arbitrage that fades once grid reform lands, and closed with three asks of energy partners: faster timelines, capacity terms that don't strand load, and hourly-matched carbon-free supply.
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3. Bringing Energy Companies to the Table Earlier: Rosa Rotko (Mott MacDonald) made the case for energy companies embedding early in project delivery rather than arriving at the end, outlining a joint infrastructure model where developers, utilities and engineers co-invest in substations, with constrained sites shifting to microgrids as primary power. Her takeaway: run a grid stress-test at kickoff.
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4. From Grid Connections to Resilient Energy Systems: Alberto Ravagni (Net Zero Innovation Hub) reframed grid connection as a system to build, not a transaction, contrasting Ireland's reopening under a redesigned deal against New York's blanket permit moratorium. His line: the data centre doesn't have to be the passenger, it can be one of the engines.

5. Beyond the PPA: Building Shared Risk into the Relationship: The closing panel, spanning Digital Realty, E.ON, VIOTAS and Eaton, agreed a signed PPA no longer solves the real problem. What's needed is deeper partnership, energy companies involved in siting, microgrid design and dispatch, with risk genuinely shared, alongside three structural gaps: inconsistent regulation, immature financing, and a shortage of talent spanning both compute and power.

The Results: Europe's AI data centre industry has entered a power-first era, where siting, investment and partnership all start with electricity rather than land. The old playbook, secure the land, wait for the power, is gone, and the pathways around this constraint already exist, edge deployment, co-invested infrastructure, hybrid on-site generation. What's still missing is the regulatory, financial and talent coordination to make those pathways move at the pace AI infrastructure now demands.