Germany built a data-center register, then left out much of the data citizens need

Germany’s National Data Center Register sounds like the missing observability layer for the AI buildout: a place to see facility-level electricity and water use. But AlgorithmWatch’s Julian Bothe told netzpolitik.org that the data are seriously incomplete—and that pressure from large technology companies could make public visibility weaker still.

This is not a minor open-data dispute. Aggregate national figures cannot answer the questions that determine whether a particular project is viable: Which watershed supplies it? Is consumption measured or estimated? How much power is contracted at peak demand? Does waste heat reach anyone who can use it? Which facilities have not reported?

A register without completeness is a map of compliant operators, not a map of the industry.

Commercial-confidentiality arguments deserve scrutiny, but resource use is also a public externality. Withholding facility-level numbers transfers informational power to operators while local governments and residents negotiate land, grid upgrades and water access with only partial evidence.

AI infrastructure is moving faster than the institutions designed to measure it. Germany’s register could become a model if it publishes comparable facility records, flags missing submissions, documents estimation methods and preserves historical data. If disclosure is weakened, the country may retain the administrative burden of a register without gaining the democratic accountability that justified it.