SDEA Partners With Advancing Data Center Design & Construction Europe

SDEA is a partner of Advancing Data Center Design & Construction Europe, held October 6-8 in Frankfurt, where Executive-level design and construction leaders work through the defining problem of Europe's mature markets: how to build AI-ready capacity where grids are congested, land is scarce, and approvals are slow. SDEA's Matthias Haymoz will also speak on the opening conference panel.

The event brings together senior leaders from hyperscalers, colocators, developers, and contractors across three days of workshops, case studies, panels, and roundtables. Its focus is Europe's FLAP-D markets – Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin – where demand is no longer the question, but delivery is.

Why the Event Matters

The pressures are familiar to anyone building in Europe right now. Grid connection lead times in the core markets can run to seven years or more. AI workloads are pushing rack densities and power demand sharply upward. Water use, permitting, and community consent have all climbed the agenda. The conference is built around a practical question rather than a promotional one: what can actually be designed, powered, approved, and delivered under these conditions.

That framing is why SDEA sees the event as a fit. Sustainability at these sites is increasingly a delivery and procurement question, not a reporting afterthought, and it rewards operators who can show measured results rather than stated intentions.

The Panel

Understanding the Global Forces Shaping Data Center Development in Europe Conference Day One – Wednesday, October 7

• Adrian Del Maestro, Vice President of Global Energy Markets, AECOM

• Ahmed Daabis, Design Director of AI Data Centers, Central Europe Lead, Digital Realty

• Matthias Haymoz, Executive Director, SDEA

On the opening conference day, Haymoz joins the panel "Understanding the Global Forces Shaping Data Center Development in Europe." It pulls together four questions that used to sit on separate agendas and now land in the same planning meetings:

• How global trends – AI density, hyperscale dynamics, and capital flows largely set in the US and Asia – show up in European projects.

• Power access, transmission limits, and the geopolitics of where energy actually comes from.

• Water consumption and environmental scrutiny, shifting from a background concern to a procurement question.

• Community and policymaker engagement, increasingly the factor that decides whether a project gets built.

The argument Haymoz brings is that the operators getting ahead treat these as a single conversation, because a decision on power reshapes the options on siting, and a decision on water reshapes the standing with regulators and communities.

Two of the four sit close to SDEA's work. As water use and environmental impact move into procurement and permitting, the operators asked to prove their footprint need numbers that hold up to outside review. That is what SDEA's certification provides – twelve months of operational data on facility efficiency, IT efficiency, carbon, and water, checked by independent third-party audit rather than taken on trust.

Advancing Data Center Design & Construction Europe 2026

A senior-level forum on designing, powering, and delivering AI-ready data centers across Europe's FLAP-D markets.

• Dates: October 6-8, 2026

• Venue: Radisson Blu Frankfurt

• Format: three days of workshops, case studies, panels, and roundtables, with 80+ senior design and construction leaders

  
  

Details and registration are on the event website.