Katharina Dröge, leader of the Greens parliamentary group, has warned about potential societal conflicts arising from the construction of AI data centers in Germany. According to a strategy paper reported by Der Spiegel, the planning of these new centers has simultaneously become a focal point for protests against the immense power of major US tech corporations.
In a recent meeting with activists from the “Conserve Ohio” initiative in Cleveland, Dröge urged that lessons learned from protests in the United States should be applied to similar projects within Germany. While the Green politician acknowledged that powerful AI models and the computing capacity required for them are crucial for the future of Germany’s economy, she noted that the US experience demonstrates that unchecked expansion of data centers can lead to significant social friction.
Therefore, she insists that the expansion of data center infrastructure in Europe must be governed by a sustainable and socially accepted development plan. Key requirements for this plan include sourcing electricity from additional renewable energy, utilizing waste heat, minimizing water consumption, and eliminating the use of climate-damaging refrigerants. Dröge argues that this approach allows for rapid calculation power growth without turning the “AI boom into a climate killer.”
Furthermore, Dröge, a Green economic policy expert, demands that the municipalities where these data centers are built must benefit from their presence because these facilities consume large amounts of land, electricity, and other resources. Consequently, she suggests that the corporate tax (Gewerbesteuer) should not be based solely on paid wages, but also be adjusted to reflect electricity consumption when dealing with large corporations that employ relatively few people.
