ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Today, on the occasion of the Data Center Symposium of IDA – Italian Datacenter Association, the Market Research IDA 2026, created to analyze dimensions, trajectories of growth and economic and territorial impacts of the Italian market of data centers. Among others, Adolfo Urso, Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy, and Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Minister of Environment and Energy Security, together with representatives of the institutions, enterprises and the ecosystem of data centers. The joint presence of the institutions and operators has highlighted the need to accompany the development of the digital infrastructure through a structured comparison between public and private sectors, with the aim of encouraging an orderly, sustainable and consistent growth with the country’s infrastructure and territorial needs.
Luca Beltramino, President of IDA, commented: “We are proud of the comparison that emerged today at the Data Center Symposium between institutions and industry, the basis for addressing the future of the sector starting from concrete and verifiable data. The research we have presented is intended to contribute to this: to make transparent numbers available, to help understand the reality of the projects and to build a more conscious dialogue with the territories. It is a comparison that we consider essential because data centers are a strategic infrastructure for the country, the basis of activities and services that are now indispensable and part of the everyday life of each of us. Developing this capacity in Italy means strengthening our digital autonomy and not letting an increasingly important share of the Italian economy depend on infrastructures that lie outside our borders.”.
The research photographes an infrastructure growth that has a significant impact on the labour market. In the scenario of full activation of the pipeline, by 2036 the industry could support about 11,900 FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) direct recurring. This would add some 11,000 FTEs indirect in the operating chain and 3,000 FTEs induced by workers’ consumption, bringing the total recurring employment to about 26,000 full-time employees. Separately, development, design, construction, fit-out and commissioning activities may take about 20 thousand temporary FTEs each year between 2026 and 2036. However, the availability of skills is an essential condition for transforming the pipeline into operational capacity. In the IDA Survey 2026, 53 respondents out of 80 indicate the scarcity of specialized profiles among the main obstacles to the finding of skills. An additional element emerged from the research concerns the location of interventions.
80% of the areas affected by the projects analysed are areas already urbanized or abandoned, today subject to redevelopment, while the remaining 20% are affected by areas not previously urbanized. The figure therefore shows a prevalence of recovery of industrial areas, redevelopment and reuse of land already transformed, rather than development on previously unplanned areas. All the analysed interventions also fall on land with destination compatible with industrial development. The research estimates approximately €467 million per year of consumption activated by households through direct and indirect employment income, approximately €111 million contributions and works connected with development and approximately €29.6 million per year of gross real estate taxation, of which approximately €9 million for the territories. These include electrical, road, digital and water infrastructure, training programmes, local suppliers involvement and community-based initiatives.
These relapses are not aggregated by research in a single national value, because they depend on the characteristics and agreements of individual projects. The geography of the market also shows a progressive articulation beyond Milan. Rome emerges as the second national pole, while Turin, Motor Valley, North Adriatic, Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia present different opportunities related to industrial demand, connectivity and location in national and Mediterranean digital geography.
In the 2031 scenario, research estimates, among other areas, a total demand of 217 MW for Rome, 38 MW for Turin and the Western Alps, 35 MW for Naples and Campania, 19 MW for Puglia, 13 MW for the Adriatic North and 9 MW for the Motor Valley. Territorial diversification is therefore an element of the future evolution of the Italian market: not only to distribute investments, but also to develop digital capacity, connectivity and skills in areas other than the main national hub. The full activation of the qualified pipeline is associated with approximately €36.9 billion of infrastructure investments accumulated in the period 2026-2036.
The research also estimates around EUR 67 billion of potentially hosted IT hardware and around EUR 600 million of infrastructure-related services. The direct operating added value of the facility could reach approximately 3,87 billion euros annually by 2036, in the central scenario and with an average use of the operating capacity of 85%. At the end of 2025 the installed total IT capacity reaches approximately 760 MW, of which 460 MW commercial and about 300 MW enterprise. For the commercial component, the study identifies a total capacity of approximately 2.0 GW to 2031, consisting of the already operating capacity and a qualified pipeline of about 1800 MW.
The qualified pipeline also distinguishes the different levels of project maturity: 230 MW are under construction, 673 MW in development and 936 MW in a qualified preliminary phase. The research therefore emphasizes the importance of distinguishing market potential from projects actually intended to enter into operation, which will depend on energy availability, network connections, permissions, suitable sites, connectivity and commercial conditions. One of the research contributions concerns the comparison of environmental issues, on which public debate often focuses on individual indicators or representations not sufficiently contextual.
The study instead brings data on some of the main themes in the center of comparison with the territories: soil consumption, water use, energy requirements, cooling efficiency and heat recovery. In particular, on the energy front, the EUDCA European sample analyzed by research indicates that about 97% of electricity declared by operators comes from low-emission sources, largely renewable. On the water front, the study also highlights the evolution towards dry systems, closed circuits, hybrid configurations and liquid cooling. Heat recovery is also part of sustainability development guidelines.
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