Data centers: a law will facilitate their installation, the associations are worried / CheapToken News

Published on April 19, 2026 at 13:22

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On Tuesday, April 14, the National Assembly adopted a new law that should facilitate the implementation of data centers in France, while the think tank The Shift Project advocates for the establishment of national and territorial planning for the entire sector, in a new report published on the same day.

The alerts from several associations and the publication of a new report by the think tank Shift Project have not made French parliamentarians bend. In a context where data centers are praised by some while others call for more planning, or even restrictions, the National Assembly finally approved, on Tuesday, April 14, the bill aimed at simplifying economic life. One of its key measures (its article 15) is to simplify administrative procedures for companies wishing to establish data centers in France.

Thus, a data center that " holds particular importance for the digital transition, the ecological transition, or national sovereignty can also be designated by decree as a major national interest project (PINM)", specifies article 15. However, it will be possible to refuse the construction permit " for a data center located on a territory experiencing structural tensions over water resources ", details the text.

What does this PINM status mean?

The bill fits into the government's intention to make France an eldorado for data centers, a country opening its arms wide to any data center project for reasons of digital sovereignty and the race for AI. These infrastructures, essential for artificial intelligence, are very electricity-intensive: a resource that EDF has in abundance, thanks to its nuclear capabilities. However, the text was received with a grimace by several associations, which had been advocating for its abandonment for weeks.

Once in possession of this PINM status, data center project managers will be able to bypass some of their environmental obligations, such as those related to the protection of endangered species. A group of association and union leaders warned that the government could circumvent the normally competent local authorities, in an editorial published on April 8 in Libération.

Among the signatories, the digital rights defense association la Quadrature du Net calls for a moratorium « on the construction of these large server warehouses ». For Pauline Denis, responsible for Digital at the Shift Project, this think tank chaired by engineer Jean-Marc Jancovici, the text mainly allows data centers to exit the public debate: a problem for this sector which, for now, is not subject to any planning in the law, « even though it is starting to happen among energy-climate forecasters, beginning with us, the Shift Project, as well as RTE and in the national low-carbon strategy project 3 », she explains.

In the data center sector, «

everything is done backwards. There is zero planning, but regulatory changes are pushed by the sector, without planning. We call for the construction of a national planning with a consumption ceiling trajectory (…), but also for the construction of a territorial planning with the existence of processes (…) that involve all stakeholders, including territorial ones », she argues.

By the calendar's chance, on the day of the vote, the Shift Project presented a new report listing its 20 priority projects to achieve carbon neutrality. Among these projects, the think tank, which intends to influence the future presidential campaign with its studies on « key challenges of decarbonization », calls, in contrast to the aspirations of public decision-makers, for a « mastery of data center deployment » in the Hexagone.

Because today, the government's goal is to welcome as many data center projects as possible, with its fast-track procedure aimed at accelerating the 5 to 7 years necessary to establish a center on French territory, or the publication of a guide intended for local authorities, « on does not even prioritize European actors when it welcomes them (data center projects)." "They contribute little economically today, and upcoming regulatory changes could exempt them even more », says Pauline Denis, in charge of digital affairs at the think tank.

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In 2025, half of the connection requests to RTE concerned data centers

However, in the short term, there are issues regarding the availability of connection capacity for electricity. Last year, half of the connection requests to RTE concerned data centers, according to the expert.

However, « there is a real risk of this monopolization of connection capacities for data centers towards other sectors that would need to be connected in the short term for their decarbonization and electrification, and which could not afford delays or additional costs », she says.

In the medium term, there will also be conflicts over electricity usage, she recalls, citing a data center consumption of 10 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2025, which is 2 % of national consumption, potentially rising to 40 TWh by 2035 and 100 TWh by 2050." « If we imagine a scenario where the current situation continues and recent connection requests are partially fulfilled », this dynamic « would become unsustainable for the country ».

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This point is precisely contested by the French data center lobby, France Datacenter, which expressed itself in the columns of Usine Digitale. For this latter party, no arbitration will take place because data centers are actually a valuable outlet for electricity producers, who would be in surplus.

« And even if we remain a net electricity exporter, it doesn't prevent us from reflecting on the beneficiaries of this electricity », she adds. The Shift Project calls for « an informed citizen debate on the subject of the rightful place of the digital and of AI in society »: a debate that, for the government, seems already folded: we must adopt AI in all aspects of our economy… and therefore build data centers in the country, as exemplified by the « plug, baby, plug » slogan launched by Emmanuel Macron at the AI Summit a year earlier.