Step 1 · Plan · view 2 of 4
Where to build power, generation and fibre on one map
Click a place or pick a market: the grid connection status and published wait, the power plants nearby, the distance to the transmission grid and to fibre, the round trip to the main hubs and the electricity bill, in plain words.
Where to build?
Click the map or pick a market.
Substations, transmission grid and data centres © OpenStreetMap contributors
Every country at a glance
The status of new grid connections for large loads and the published wait, from the grid connection tracker, with the all-in business electricity price.
| Country | New connections | Published wait | All-in price, €/MWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | Open | None published | €188 |
| Belgium | Conditional | None published | €149 |
| Czechia | Conditional in parts | 5–15 years | €233 |
| Denmark | Rationed | 5–10 years | €176 |
| Finland | Conditional in parts | None published | €59 |
| France | Open | 2028–2029 | €92 |
| Germany | Rationed | 2030–2036 | €216 |
| Ireland | Conditional | None published | €202 |
| Italy | Open | None published | €172 |
| Netherlands | Rationed in parts | 2034–2037 | €165 |
| Norway | Paused in parts | None published | €57 |
| Poland | Congested | None published | €233 |
| Portugal | Rationed | None published | €128 |
| Spain | Rationed in parts | None published | €126 |
| Sweden | Congested in parts | 1–5 years | €89 |
| Switzerland | Open | 3–10 years | €99 (wholesale) |
| United Kingdom | Paused | None published | €94 (wholesale) |
How to read the verdict
Screening figures for a first shortlist, not a connection offer.
Power
The worst rule in force for new connections in the country (paused, rationed, conditional or congested) and the published connection wait, from system operators, regulators and ministries. “In parts” means the rule or wait covers part of the country only.
Substation
Straight-line distance to the nearest substation of 220 kV or more, and of 110 kV or more, with a voltage tag in OpenStreetMap, retrieved . Within 10 km reads as close, 10 to 30 km as a line to plan, beyond 30 km as far. Untagged substations are left out, and no capacity is known.
Generation
Power plants of 50 MW or more within 50 km, their total capacity and the two largest fuels. A large plant nearby usually means a strong substation, not spare capacity for you.
Connectivity
Straight-line distance to the nearest mapped transmission line (220 kV or more) and operational fibre route. Round trips use the straight line times 1.13, the median of our 169 mapped fibre routes between hubs, at the speed of light in fibre: real latency is higher.
Cost
The annual electricity of your IT load at 60% utilisation, with a PUE adjusted for the country’s cooling degree days, at the all-in business price (wholesale where no full bill is published). “Now” is the latest day-ahead price and grid carbon of the bidding zone.
Sources: grid connection tracker, checked (system operators, regulators and ministries); Eurostat electricity prices, compiled ; ENTSO-E day-ahead prices and generation, live; ITU transmission networks, retrieved . Map data: power plants from the Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), ; substations (retrieved ), transmission grid and data centres © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); outlines Natural Earth.
ScienceShot calculation.
Cite this page
ScienceShot. (2026). Site finder: where to build a data centre [Online calculator]. https://scienceshot.com/plan/site-finder
@misc{scienceshot-site-finder-2026,
author = {{ScienceShot}},
title = {{Site finder: where to build a data centre}},
year = {2026},
note = {Online calculator},
url = {https://scienceshot.com/plan/site-finder}
}