4 billion euros of investment announced by Microsoft in 2024, 2.5 billion by Iliad, 1.2 billion by Amazon… Data center players plan 12 billion euros of total investments in France over ten years . This represents around ten data centers of more than 100 MW by 2030, mainly in the Paris region, the fourth largest area in the world for data traffic.
It must be said that if France had 315 data centers on its territory in 2024 (compared to 521 in Germany and 514 in the United Kingdom), the country has practically none adapted to artificial intelligence. And this, while it has made the hosting of data linked to AI one of the priorities of its digital sovereignty.
Connection times that are getting longer
This situation should change by 2030, according to a report from the professional association France Datacenter, because 30 to 40% of new projects would be dedicated specifically to AI. “The applications for connection to the high voltage network that we are currently examining concern data centers with a power of 50 to 200 MW, compared to 5 to 20 for the majority of those in operation», Revealed Jean-Philippe Bonnet, deputy director of RTE's strategy, foresight and evaluation division, in an interview with L'Usine Nouvelle.
An appetite that is causing the need for electrical capacity to surge, and with it the demands for connection to the network. However, if the network manager claims to have “enough electricity to meet growing needs“, he sees himself confronted with a real “capacity race» from the operators. “If we base ourselves on all demands, we arrive at a consumption of 80 terawatt hours by 2028, compared to 10 currently.” Capacities which will be used as new customers are welcomed, with the ramp-up potentially taking place over ten to twenty years.
The fact remains that the inflation of demands has led to an extension of network connection times, which have gone from around two years to four or five years, or even more, according to RTE. In question, the work to be undertaken to strengthen the electricity network, in a context “development of electric mobility and decarbonization of industrial processes», recalls Jean-Philippe Bonnet.
A simplification law delayed by political chaos
Tensions are high in Ile-de-France, which already has 85% of the capacity of French data centers. “From a 400,000 volt line which surrounds the Greater Paris metropolis, high voltage lines of 225,000 volts supply Paris and the greater suburbs. However, on certain portions of this loop, we are in maximum tension», Points out Philippe Schmit, the president of the Regional Environmental Authority Mission (MRAE) of Ile-de-France. Result, according to Olivier Micheli, the president of France Datacenter, “several projects have been abandoned due to tensions over energy distribution».
Locally, data centers are not always unanimously appreciated, due to the pollution they generate, the few jobs they create or even the noise pollution. To the point that in Marseille, the municipal councilor in charge of digital, Christophe Hugon, wants to make the economic contribution to the region a prerequisite for the acceptance of new projects.
Despite these tensions, the government wishes to facilitate the development of new projects. With this in mind, the bill on the simplification of economic life introduces several measures in favor of data centers. Firstly, their integration into the SCOT (Territorial Coherence Schemes), which should allow better organization of their implementation and easier access to electrical and digital networks. But also the PINM status (Projects of Major National Interest), which should make it possible to speed up administrative procedures, but also to reduce connection times to network infrastructures.
Suspended for many months by the dissolution of the Assembly, the bill successfully passed the Senate which voted on the text on October 22. It should normally be examined in the Assembly at the beginning of 2025. Provided that the new government holds out until then.
