<div id="readability-page-1"><div id="body"> Amazon Web Services' European expansion has hit the buffers as the American cloud provider grapples with aging grid infrastructure and lengthy interconnect delays. AWS has moved quickly to flood the European continent with its elastic compute fabric, but while it may take two years to bring a new datacenter online, securing power for the facilities can take up to seven years, Pamela MacDougall, who heads energy markets and regulation for AWS EMEA, said in an interview with Reuters this week. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in some European datacenter meccas, like Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin, this wait can extend to as much as a decade. This isn't unique to Europe. While a 2025 IEA report showed grid connection lead times ranging from one to three years on average across the US, in datacenter hot spots like Northern Virginia, they're also pushing [PDF] seven years. &#34;We're finding more and more across Europe that certainty of the delivery date has continued to be delayed,&#34; MacDougall told the news wire. These delays have forced AWS to reassess its European buildout. Power has become more of a problem for bit barn builders as the AI boom enters its fourth year. Since ChatGPT's debut in 2022, datacenter power consumption has skyrocketed, with typical rack densities jumping from 6-12 kW to upwards of 140 kW, with 600 kW systems slated to start rolling out next year. Along with greater power consumption, AI workloads, particularly training, can be extremely spiky, with utilization jumping from just a couple of percent to 100 percent in a fraction of a second. This leaves grid operators and utilities tasked with serving these datacenters little time to respond to surges in energy demand. The permitting process associated with grid improvements in Europe has also proven problematic, though regulation from the European Commission has been proposed to prevent this process from exceeding two years. Further complicating matters, energy infrastructure remains in incredibly short supply with turbine manufacturers struggling to keep up with demand. In response, cloud providers including Amazon have begun turning to alternative energy sources to secure power for their facilities. Amazon last year purchased Talen Energy's Cumulus datacenter campus next to a nuclear power plant, while Microsoft and Meta are also backing projects to reignite or extend the life of aging reactors. <ul> <li>Next-gen nuclear reactors safe enough to skip full environmental reviews, says Trump admin</li> <li>AI datacenter boom triples US gas power builds, filling the air with more CO2</li> <li>Uncle Sam dangles nuclear campuses for states while watering down safety rules</li> <li>Moscow likely behind wiper attack on Poland's power grid, experts say</li> </ul> We've also seen a flurry of interest in startups developing small modular reactors (SMRs). These mini nuclear power plants could be deployed alongside datacenters if they can be made commercially viable. With even the most optimistic SMR roadmaps pushing mass production out to the 2030s, a seven-year lead time on grid connections is probably the better deal for now. The Register reached out to Amazon for comment on how it plans to address these grid challenges; we'll let you know if we hear anything back. ® </div></div>

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Amazon Web Services' expansion in Europe faces significant delays due to aging grid infrastructure and lengthy interconnect wait times, which can reach up to seven years. AWS is struggling to secure power for its datacenters amid rising energy demands driven by AI workloads. The permitting process for grid improvements is also problematic, prompting AWS to explore alternative energy sources, including nuclear power. The situation reflects broader challenges in the energy sector, affecting datacenter operations across Europe and the US.

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Amazon's European datacenter buildout blows a breaker as grid connection wait list hits 7 years