The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany – an initiative of leading representatives of the ecosystem of digital infrastructures with a focus on the data centre industry – was founded under the umbrella of the eco Association in 2018.

In 2022, the initiative once again placed a strong focus on the topic of ‘digitalisation and sustainability’. The eco Alliance made it clear to policymakers and the media that digital infrastructures are part of the solution for achieving Germany’s and Europe’s climate goals.

A further key topic in 2022 was that of the looming energy crisis caused by the Ukraine war. Core tasks undertaken by the Alliance included a call on the German federal government to include data centres in its emergency plans in the event of a power shortage, as well as a call to have an electricity price brake also apply to the industry.

In the name of the Alliance, eco also launched an internal association survey among industry operators on the effects of the strong price fluctuations on the electricity market triggered by the Ukraine war. eco conducted a further survey on the current energy situation among IT decision-makers, undertaken with the support of the market and opinion research institute Civey.

Events & background briefings

In 2022, the members of the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany exchanged views with a large number of relevant experts from politics and the industry in panel discussions, background briefings, keynote speeches and special events.

One key highlight was the joint information tour led by the eco Association and the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures on the eve of the German federal government’s Digital Summit on 7 December 2022. The moderated tour took place in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and the German Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport (BMVI). With its pivotal topic being that of the data economy, the tour’s aim was to bring the abstract topics of digitalisation and the data economy to life for policymakers and the media. One of the four stops visited on the tour was Berlin’s Marienpark, which is the new location of the Alliance member NTT. This data centre, which will open in October 2022, meets the current state-of-the-art technology and the highest energy efficiency standards.

The Alliance was once again actively involved in 2022 in the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, involving multiple discussions at the EU level. In addition, the Alliance Spokesperson Dr. Béla Waldhauser was elected to the Board.

The Alliance in the media: 165 growth of reports in the DACH region

The Alliance media coverage in 2022 was also strongly marked by the topic of digitalisation and sustainability. In this context, several leading national media such as the Handelsblatt and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on the potential of data centres’ waste heat utilisation.

At the same time, the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany achieved success in its public relations campaign against the first draft of the German Energy Efficiency Act planned by the German federal government in December 2022 – an act which was still unofficial at that time. Here, the Alliance made it clear that the planned mandatory waste heat delivery of 30 to 40 per cent was neither technically nor economically feasible for operators.

Overall, in 2022, the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany recorded more than 250 media reports in the DACH region. This means that the Alliance was able to boost its coverage in the DACH region by around 165 per cent – with a simultaneous lead media share of approximately 25 per cent.

Links and further information
Website: digitale-infrastrukturen.net/en
Video (in German language): Information tour on “Places of the Internet” at the Digital Summit 2022