A new renewable energy powered Data Center Valley is emerging in the Puglia region of southern Italy
Adriatic DC is a new player planning to build a "data center valley" as part of a strategy to direct the geopolitics of artificial intelligence to southern Italy.
Bari
Puglia offers the availability of industrial land, energy networks subject to important future investments by the TSO, global submarine digital connections and a favourable institutional climate.
Uniquely however the region has electricity production from renewable sources, the availability of underwater digital backbones already operational and connection to the new Italy-Albania energy cable capable of strengthening the interchange of renewable energy along the Adriatic axis.
The strategic importance of southern Italy couldalso be enhanced by the recent announcement of a feasibility study for a new cable system - The Magna Grecia Submarine Cable - to connect Taranto, Italy and Igoumenitsa, Greece. The cable project is being developed by Retelit, co-financed by the European Union (EU) through the CEF-DIG-2023-GATEWAYS programme, within the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) framework, aimed at supporting the expansion of digital infrastructures in member countries.
In the meantime an intersectoral working group on data centers has been formed in Puglia, with the aim of creating effective authorization processes, defining technical guidelines and facilitating dialogue with local authorities, which will provide operators with a clear reference framework and a dedicated institutional channel.
The first construction sites for Adriatic DC are in Bari and Brindisi and are expected to be announced by the end of 2026, with an initial investment phase of around €2bn for the first project. In total three AI facilities are planned.
