More data centers planned

According to a foreign consultancy, the data center market in Greece is expected to grow in value from €695 million in 2023 to €1.2 billion in 2029, expanding at an average pace of nearly 10% annually.

The prospects for the development of data centers are good, the analysts say. Greece sits at the confluence of undersea fiber-optic cables that connect Europe with Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The country has eagerly adopted the idea of the cloud for data storage; there is significant progress in adopting artificial intelligence and investments in data centers are encouraged by authorities.

Next to these positive factors, there are some marked weaknesses. Building data centers remains a time-consuming process: Data centers are among so-called "greenfield" investments, that is, they are being built mostly on empty land and the bureaucratic processes to get building...