Near Milan, one of two major data centre projects fast-tracked by the government this month has drawn opposition from local communities over land use, water and energy consumption.

On August 4th, the government approved a proposal by the business minister Adolfo Urso to grant two projects — one in Sardinia and the other in the Milan metropolitan area — strategic national interest status, accelerating approval procedures for a combined investment of about €6.8 billion in new data centres. They are part of a broader plan covering seven new data centres worth around €25 billion in total.

The €1.49 billion “Digital Vault Sulcis” project in Sardinia, promoted by Energy Vault Sulcis, will be built at the former Monte Sinni coal mine in Nuraxi Figus. It will include a 30 MW Edge AI data centre and renewable energy production and storage infrastructure, according to the Italian business ministry.

The government said the project aims to support the development of AI and energy infrastructure while redeveloping the former industrial site, creating around 400 jobs per year.

“Digital Vault Sulcis would allow us to give a new life to a disused coal site that would otherwise be slated for closure,” said Luca Manzella, vice president of Energy Vault EMEA, as reported by Cagliari Today.

For now, it doesn't appear that local residents have expressed opposition to the planned data centre, according to l’Indipendente.

The Lombardy project is even larger and worth €5.3 billion. K2 Strategic Infrastructure Italy plans to build a data centre campus with capacity of up to around 400 MW in the municipalities of Zibido San Giacomo and Lacchiarella, in the Milan metropolitan area.

The government estimates that the project will employ an average of around 2,000 people per year during the four-year construction phase, while the operational campus is expected to create around 200 highly specialised jobs and a further 1,300 jobs in related maintenance activities.

However, data centre developments in Lombardy have already faced opposition from local communities and politicians.

In Lacchiarella, around 200 people took part in a demonstration against data centre developments in July. Protesters raised concerns about land consumption and the large amounts of energy and water that data centres require.

Lombardy passed Italy’s first data centre law in early June, prioritising building on disused or contaminated land and requiring new facilities to use renewable energy. Critics argued that the law did not go far enough, as it didn’t ban construction on agricultural land.

“We have asked the government to have an ongoing discussion,” said Gianmarco Reina, mayor of Cusago, concerning the K2 Strategic data centre campus, “so that the municipality can actively participate in every phase of the project, carefully evaluating its impacts on the land, the environment, transport and the opportunities it might generate.”

Pietro Cataldi, city councillor with the Bene Comune group of Zibido San Giacomo, described the decision to grant the K2 project national interest status as “imposed from above” and questioned its potential impact on the territory and the environment.

“They talk about billions in investments, but the reality is a devastating impact on our territory: reckless land consumption, a huge drying up of natural resources and an unsustainable energy load,” he said.

The business ministry said a special government commissioner would be appointed to speed up the development of both projects.