The General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), in collaboration with the Consumers’ Workers Union of Greece (EEKE), has expressed deep concern over the indiscriminate and unchecked spread of large data centres in the country, in a statement:
“At a time when Greek society is being severely tested by high prices and the crushing cost of living, announcements of billions in investment by multinational giants and energy groups in Attica, Thessaloniki, Crete and Western Macedonia are being presented as a supposed ‘miracle’ of digital modernisation.
The reality, however, according to the two organisations, is quite different: data centres are not technology offices but heavy industries that consume vast amounts of energy and water. They operate around the clock, absorbing huge quantities of electricity and water.
They warn that unless strict rules are introduced immediately, the cost of these facilities will be passed directly on to consumers and local communities.
The paradox of the lignite phase-out: plants close as energy-hungry facilities open
According to GSEE, the decision to locate giant data centres in areas undergoing an energy transition, such as Western Macedonia and Kozani, is a particular cause for concern.
At a time when local communities are experiencing a rapid lignite phase-out, with thousands of jobs lost and economic decline, the former lignite plants that generated electricity are being replaced by facilities that simply consume huge amounts of power.
As the statement points out:
Electricity generation that supported the national economy is being turned into monopoly consumption for the benefit of foreign digital giants.
Instead of a genuinely Just Transition, with high-quality, productive jobs for local people and affordable energy to support local development, the infrastructure and networks of former energy-producing regions are being handed over to energy-intensive computing centres, with minimal local benefit.
The myth of “thousands of jobs”
GSEE argues that the public is being systematically misled by promises of mass employment. These are investments in extremely expensive equipment, it says, not in people.
In particular, it argues that:
Once construction is complete, a huge data centre employs just 30 to 60 people on a permanent basis, mainly in security, cleaning and basic building maintenance.
Specialist, high-value jobs and excess profits remain at multinational companies’ headquarters abroad, while Greece is left with the energy and environmental costs.
Risk of further increases in electricity bills
The confederation warns of three main risks associated with the expansion of data centres:
1. Higher regulated charges
Connecting the large facilities requires new and costly projects on the public electricity grid. If companies do not cover the full cost, it will gradually be passed on to household bills.
2. Pressure on energy prices
During heatwaves or periods of low wind, the statement says, the constant demand from data centres will be met by extremely expensive fossil-fuel plants, pushing up electricity tariffs for everyone.
3. Restricting local communities
Giving data centres priority access to grid capacity deprives farmers, municipalities, businesses and citizen energy communities of the opportunity to install their own solar systems through net metering and reduce their energy costs.
A threat to water supplies and the primary sector
GSEE points out that the country is already affected by prolonged drought and water shortages, while cooling thousands of computer systems requires millions of cubic metres of water.
According to the statement:
In areas such as eastern Attica and Crete, water extraction for industrial use directly competes with water supplies for residents and irrigation for crops.
If municipalities are forced to turn to extremely expensive boreholes or desalination plants to meet demand, water bills and municipal charges could rise significantly.
GSEE’s five demands
GSEE and the consumer movement make clear that they do not oppose technological progress. But, they stress, they refuse to let workers, consumers and local communities bear the costs of major multinational groups.
In their statement, they cite examples from other European countries: Ireland, which halted new connections in Dublin to protect the electricity grid; Germany, which requires companies to provide free heating to local communities; and the Netherlands, which banned such projects on agricultural land.
On this basis, they are calling for five immediate measures:
1. A genuine Just Transition – no turning energy regions into server warehouses
In lignite-producing areas such as Western Macedonia and Megalopoli, available electricity infrastructure and transition funding should be directed as a priority towards projects that create many permanent, high-quality jobs, as well as energy communities that benefit local residents.
2. No additional costs for households
No grid connection project should add to consumers’ regulated charges. Companies should be required to meet their energy needs in full through their own new renewable energy and storage projects, without tying up public grid capacity.
3. Full protection for drinking water
An explicit ban should be introduced on using water from the public supply network to cool data centre systems. The organisations also call for mandatory transparency, with electricity and water consumption at each facility published monthly.
4. An end to fast-track procedures at the public’s expense
Special spatial plans (ESCHASE), which GSEE says bypass municipal councils and local communities, should be abolished. It also calls for no permits to be granted near residential areas or productive agricultural land.
5. Benefits for local communities
The use of waste heat should be made compulsory for the benefit of neighbouring municipalities, for example by providing free district heating to schools, hospitals or homes.
GSEE concludes that the country’s digital transition must serve society as a whole and workers, rather than acting as a mechanism for privatising profits and socialising the energy and environmental costs.”