France’s growing delivery challenge
Construction projects face real pressure.
Power is hard to secure. Regulations are tighter. Skills are in short supply. And sustainability targets are rising.
Nowhere are these pressures felt more sharply than in mission-critical assets such as data centres. They depend on power availability, permitting certainty and fast delivery.
In France, the challenge is acute. It has strong foundations. It has good digital links, skilled engineers and clear plans for digital growth. But developers are becoming more cautious. Delivery risks now appear earlier in the development lifecycle, often before projects get moving.
France under pressure
France has everything going for it. Strong connectivity, expert engineers and big plans for digital transformation make it a natural choice for new data centres.
But developers are starting to think twice.
Why? Because delivery risks are rising. In Paris and the wider Île-de-France region, getting onto the electricity grid is a major challenge, according to national grid operator RTE.¹
RTE’s 2025 Annual Electricity Review shows the scale of the issue. More than 40 GW of renewable energy projects are waiting to connect to the grid. In areas under heavy pressure like Île-de-France, wait times of three to five years are now normal. And over a quarter of projects are delayed or cancelled due to grid saturation.¹
Rules are tightening and delays are growing
Grid delays aren’t the only hurdle for data centre developers in France.
It’s not just the electricity grid causing issues. France’s environmental rules can slow things down too.²
Diesel generators and cooling systems in a data centre can trigger the Installations Classées pour la Protection de l’Environnement (ICPE) process, even when the full project sits below usual thresholds. That means environmental approvals, public consultations and extra design reviews.
RE 2020 Environmental regulation adds another layer. This regulation sets tougher targets for energy use and carbon output. Meeting them has made design more complex and pushed up construction costs by 5 to 10%.²
Planning has also become stricter. Since 2023, data centres count as “entrepôts” or warehouses. That gives local councils more power to delay or refuse new builds. And in Île-de-France, things get harder still with overlapping planning controls, heritage protections and stronger environmental rules.