Data Center CO2 Calculator
Data centers consume a huge amount of energy and the global data center industry emits almost as much CO2 as the airline industry. In order to become more sustainable data centers should run on renewable power.
This data center CO2 calculator shows the difference in CO2 emissions and share of renewable energy used in selected European countries.
How to use the calculator:
1. Select the country where your data is currently located. (You can choose between the most frequently used locations in Northern Europe)
2. Input the estimated capacity you need in kW
3. Click “Calculate”.
renewable sources
Source: electricitymap.org
Curious about your potential CO₂ savings?
Whether you want to understand how the calculator works, get tailored estimates for your own data load, or explore how Green Mountain can help lower your environmental impact — we’re happy to talk.
How does the CO2 calculator work?
The purpose of this CO₂ calculator is to help you understand how much you can reduce your emissions by moving your data to Norway.
The calculation is based on two inputs:
– Data center location
– Capacity needed in kW
We’ve selected the most frequently used data center hubs in Europe – the so-called FLAP-D countries (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin) – along with a Nordic country comparison.
The calculation uses carbon intensity data (gCO₂eq/kWh) for each country based on a average from electricitymap.org using data from October 2024 to September 2025.
Please note: The data is not updated in real-time, but this snapshot still provides a solid basis for comparison between countries and helps estimate potential emission savings when relocating workloads.
For Norway, we use data representing the West Coast region, where our data centers are located. Based on the carbon intensity and your estimated kW capacity, we calculate the annual CO₂ emissions for each location – and how much you could save by choosing a low-carbon region like Norway.
Norway is part of the Nordic Power System. Green Mountain ensures reportable carbon neutrality from our data centers by securing deliveries of 100% renewable power with guarantees of origin (GoO) through power purchase agreements. This provides verified, emissions-free electricity for all workloads hosted in our facilities.
We also include historical carbon intensity data for each country in the graph below, based on average emissions per country. These values are updated every 6 months for context and comparison.
Examples of clients who have made the move to a more sustainable data center location.
Data Center for the Volkswagen Group
For the Volkswagen Group, Green Mountain built a HPC data center in only six months. The client even made this video about it:
Data Center for Mastercard
Mastercard chose Green Mountain as their data center provider for the world’s first real-time, cross-border bank payment system together with the P27 Nordic Payments Group. They have published an article where you can read more about this sustainable project.
You may ask..?
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Why have you not included all European countries in this calculator? Especially the other Nordic countries?
It is of course possible but in this first version we chose to focus on the FLAP-D hubs. If you visit electricitymap.org you will be able to see the carbon intensity numbers of almost all European countries. However, if this tool proves to be useful for our website visitors, we will add more countries to the list.
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Sustainability is not solely about power usage. This calculator only gives you a part of the picture?
Yes, that is true. Sustainability includes not only energy use but other elements such as environmental pollution, water usage, waste handling, and so forth. The UN Sustainable Development Goals gives indeed a much broader picture. These aspects should be a natural part of the assessment when considering a new data center location. Nevertheless, for a data center, the single biggest impact it has on the environment is its energy use. More specifically: What type of energy it uses and how much. The majority of data centers around the world run on fossile fuels which cause carbon emissions and harms the environment. In addition to the type of energy used, you should always consider how energy effective the data center is. The less power it uses, the less it pollutes. In this regard, the PUE metric can be a good guideline.
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Green Energy is an important decision criterion, but it is not the only one. We can not ignore costs when making these decisions. Is a “green” data center more expensive?
Not necessarily. The cost element is largely dependent on the price and taxes on electricity. In Norway for instance, the electricity price is far below the European average. Cost is of course a very important element to consider. Compared to the FLAP-D countries, you save an average of 1.55 million EUR annually per MW of capacity by having your data in Norway. We have written an article on the subject here.
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Norway is mainly powered by hydropower. What kind of environmental footprint has this type of energy source?
Although 100% renewable, building hydropower plants can have an environmental impact to their surroundings. However, due to natural conditions Norwegian hydropower has a minimal ecological footprint – you can read more about that here in this article by Innovation Norway. Moreover, hydropower is the ideal renewable energy source for data centers. It can be stored and thus provides clean energy around the clock.
