Germany’s state IT infrastructure is facing a sustainability problem. Actually, all federal properties and thus all official server locations should be fully supplied with electricity from renewable energies by the end of 2024. But this plan has officially failed. The federal government is leaving it open when the transition to clean energy supply for state IT systems will be completed across the board.
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This emerges from the Digital Ministry’s response to a request from the left-wing faction in the Bundestag, which deals in detail with the climate impacts and sustainability monitoring of the federal government’s own information technology. For the survey, the government took into account larger systems with an IT connection power of at least 100 kilowatts (kW). Secret classified locations were left out.
According to the information, the federal government’s IT infrastructure operations have grown continuously in recent years. As of April, the federal government was using a total of 167 data centers. In the previous two years the number was somewhat lower, with 157 systems in 2024 and 160 in the following year. The state itself is responsible for most of this digital infrastructure: As of April, 141 of the current capacities were operated by the authorities themselves.
A look at the distribution within the various departments shows a high concentration of systems. The business unit of the Federal Ministry of the Interior stands out as the frontrunner, with a constant 81 data centers that are expected to account for almost half of all non-secret large-scale IT facilities in the federal government by 2029. In other sectors, however, ongoing IT consolidation is increasingly taking effect. By 2029, the number of server locations used in individual ministries is expected to fall noticeably, as tasks are increasingly being bundled or transferred to central service providers such as the federal IT service center.
Security concerns versus transparency
The slow expansion of renewables reveals a gap between political goals and administrative reality. The overarching requirement to organize the federal administration in a climate-neutral manner by 2030 remains formally in place. But converting the data centers is proving difficult. The government acknowledges the need for action, but does not provide any prospects for replacing fossil energy sources for its IT infrastructure.
An independent review of progress is made more difficult by the fact that the government is not publishing any specific data on the total energy consumption of individual plants in 2024 and 2025 for reasons of IT security and confidentiality. According to those responsible, a detailed breakdown of the consumption values could allow conclusions to be drawn about critical state infrastructure and significantly increase the risk of IT espionage or targeted attacks by foreign secret services.
The national data center register anchored in the Energy Efficiency Act, which is actually intended to provide more transparency into energy and resource consumption in the entire German server market, is also still waiting to be fully implemented. The corresponding publication portal for the public does not yet exist. But it should go online in the near future. Given the response so far, there is still a long way to go: As of December, only seven of the federal data centers considered had participated in the register with their specific data.
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Lack of data flow
Four of these facilities stated that they had made the report due to a legal requirement for systems with a nominal output of more than 300 kW. The Digital Ministry did not have any precise information about the motives for the remaining three locations.
The government is currently not planning an internal obligation for all state data centers to participate in the energy efficiency register that goes beyond the minimum legal requirements. As the demand for electricity increases due to advancing digitalization and the rapid introduction of AI applications, the sustainable and resource-saving operation of state IT systems remains one of the unsolved tasks in climate protection.
(wpl)
