Poland Poland to be the new data hub

Is being close to Russia still one of the factors that slows down the development of data centres in Poland?

I believe this is something that foreign investors pay considerable attention to. However, I believe it is overblown in their thinking. Poland is a member of NATO and the European Union. It is a very powerful country that spends almost 5 pct of its GDP on defence. In this context, I always cite the example of Finland, which shares a 2,500-kilometer border with Russia and is currently one of the fastest-growing data centre markets. In my opinion, this element is overblown by foreign investors. I feel safe in this country, and I think we all feel safe here, so this shouldn't be a factor that significantly impacts our security and investment.

Are there any plans to create data centres based on dual-use principles? Are server halls being designed so that in the event of a crisis, such as war, servers could be removed relatively quickly?

I think it's no secret that data centres can definitely be classified as dual-use technologies. For now, centres dedicated to military or government applications are usually classified projects. We also need to be aware that in many countries, such centres have already been designated as critical infrastructure, meaning they are included on a list of facilities under state surveillance and protection, and can be specially accessed in the event of a crisis such as a war. Most such centres are commercial, after all, but the adoption of dual-use is a natural consequence of the development of the technology used in data centres, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence.

Are there any ideas for creating private power sources, such as wind farms built specifically for data centres, or are such projects implemented solely developed by the state?

This is an interesting question, and such projects are already being rapidly developed in the United States, known as behind-the-meter energy sources. There are also places in Europe where the demand for energy from data centres is so high that it cannot be met by the traditional power grid and existing sources. One such country is Ireland, where the grid can no longer accommodate new data centres, forcing investors to build their own power generation. However, it's important to point out that such facilities operate continuously – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Therefore, they cannot be directly powered by weather-dependent sources in a behind-the-meter model. As a result, sources such as gas turbines are used most often. However, I don't expect this to be a broader trend in Europe, and especially in Poland. Our high-voltage grid is being developed very rapidly. New, large power stations are being built to which high-capacity centres can be connected. Our report even suggests that data centres are a desirable element of the developing energy infrastructure and can become a grid-stabilising component – ​​unlike weather-dependent sources.

During your presentation, you mentioned the use of data centres to support municipal heating networks. Could you elaborate on this?

Yes, this is a topic that I personally care deeply about as a ventilation and air conditioning engineer. Data centres, of course, consume electricity to power servers, but data is not a form of energy. Therefore, all the electricity is converted into heat. It is a stable source available year-round, has relatively high parameters, and can be used as a lower source for heat pumps powering modern heating systems.

What temperatures can be reached this way?

The standard temperatures at which data centres currently operate are in the 20s in Celsius. Paradoxically, this is a very good source of waste heat. By comparison, alternatives already being developed in Poland, such as heat recovery from wastewater treatment plants, provide temperatures in the teens and twenties. In this context, a data centre with a temperature in the 20s is a very good source.

For two years, we have been in talks with the Ministry of Climate and Environment to demonstrate this potential, and these discussions have been very positively received. In the latest update of the Energy and Climate Plan, data centres have already been identified as one of the solutions to Poland's decarbonisation of district heating networks. I don't know if it's common knowledge, but Poland has the second-largest district heating network in Europe. Therefore, the decarbonisation challenge is enormous, but the potential for connecting large-scale data centres is also significant.

Do you think the AI investment bubble will burst soon, or will this market continue to grow?

I certainly might have a slightly skewed perspective on this matter, as I strongly believe in the potential for this technology's development. We are all asking ourselves this question. However, what we are seeing, and what I believe distinguishes the current situation from the dotcom bubble of the early 2000s, is the fact that these promises are backed by massive investment and real revenue growth for the companies involved in this sector. So far, we're not seeing any discrepancy between what the market promises and what it delivers in financial results. In my opinion, this shows that we are dealing with a technological shift that was difficult to imagine before it happened. If we look at the economic data, this is a completely different from the dotcom bubble. So I would bet that this is a phenomenon that will continue to evolve.