A-Infos (en) Poland, FA: A GIANT DATA CENTER NEAR BELCHATÓW (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

London, Dublin, Amsterdam - what do these cities have in common? Current 
or recently ended moratoriums on the construction and connection of new 
data centers to the grid. The damage and costs these centers cause, 
coupled with the limited benefits to local communities, are fueling 
growing opposition to these types of investments worldwide. Perhaps this 
is why Poland is enjoying increasing interest in the data center 
industry. Lobbying organizations such as the Polish Data Center 
Association and companies with Polish and foreign capital are very 
active in this field.
Unfortunately, this interest has evolved into much more concrete plans 
to build a data center in Domiechowice, near Belchatów. The company 
behind the project is Data Center Belchatów, but in practice, it's an 
entity established specifically for the project. The real backers of the 
investment are the Lódz-based Globitel company/group (a 
telecommunications company also responsible for video surveillance 
projects, for example) and Exus Digital, a subsidiary of a Spanish 
renewable energy company with international capital.
The scale of the investment raises significant doubts from the outset - 
the planned connection capacity is 1 GW. This figure alone probably 
doesn't raise any concerns without context. The average daily energy 
consumption of a household, in bold estimates, is typically around 15-17 
kWh. A data center with a target connection capacity of 500 MW, assuming 
the actual capacity is 400 MW per day, would consume approximately 
9,600,000 kWh, roughly equivalent to almost the entire population of 
Lódz, which consumes 15-17 kWh per day.
Here, we're talking about twice the planned capacity. In reality, 1GW of 
power would necessitate the daily energy consumption of all Warsaw 
households. Currently, the world's largest data centers have a 
connection capacity approaching 500 MW, with record-holders reaching 1 
GW. Where will the energy come from? The investor and politicians are 
counting on a nuclear power plant, which may replace the coal-fired 
power plant in 20-30 years. But what if it doesn't materialize? What 
impact will this investment have on the energy supply to local homes? We 
can only guess, but this doesn't point to a positive scenario.
And we're talking about several dozen hectares of forest near Belchatów. 
In a voivodeship that already faces significant problems with 
desertification, forest and water shortages, as well as large 
agricultural production and a strong livestock sector that consumes 
enormous amounts of water. Not to mention the impact of the Belchatów 
coal mine on water conditions and the formation of a cone of depression 
(a lowering of groundwater levels, which can only recover after 
extraction ceases). Data centers typically require large volumes of 
water for cooling. It's estimated that data centers with a daily 
connection capacity of close to 350 MW consume a volume of water 
equivalent to one and a half Olympic swimming pools (approximately 3.8 
million liters of water) and the water consumption of an average 
household for over 100 years. All this just so we can watch 
disinformation videos and low-quality songs generated by AI.
Supporters and lobbyists for the unbridled growth of the data center 
industry in Poland sometimes argue that Poland's cooler climate will 
reduce water consumption compared to other data centers worldwide - 
rising temperatures caused by climate change and the increased risk of 
blackouts seem to elude them. In a similar vein, "investors" offer 
incentives, citing alleged job opportunities or the use of data centers 
for district heating in cities. All of this, of course, seems to be a 
distant future, much more distant and less tangible than the negative 
consequences.
Poland lacks comprehensive regulations regarding data centers; 
everything is based on zoning decisions and local plans. The Belchatów 
commune has deviated from the study's provisions and, in both the 
general plan and the local plan currently being processed, envisages the 
designation of an industrial zone. While the lack of a plan doesn't 
prevent the construction of a data center, it certainly seals the fate 
of the area.
Consultations on the local spatial development plan for the area where 
the data center is planned are ongoing until August 28, 2026.

https://federacja-anarchistyczna.pl/2026/08/15/gigantyczne-centrum-danych-pod-belchatowem/
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