Summary
- Rome's Five Star Movement has challenged the transparency of ROM1's environmental assessments.
- The initial 3.2MW development is part of a wider campus planned to reach 35.2MW.
- Questions centre on operational resource use rather than a new planning refusal or construction delay.
Political representatives in Rome are demanding fuller disclosure of the environmental effects of Digital Realty‘s ROM1 data centre at Trigoria, including its electricity requirements, water consumption, noise, and heat emissions.
The intervention follows a formal question submitted by former Rome mayor Virginia Raggi, now a Five Star Movement councillor, concerning the development’s expected impact on surrounding communities.
Raggi and local representatives have asked Rome’s municipal administration to provide more detailed information about the resources the facility will consume during operation, particularly as the campus expands beyond its first building.
The project is being constructed on the former ACEA management site in Via delle Testuggini, forming part of a redevelopment programme intended to bring new economic activity to previously used industrial land.
Digital Realty’s plans envisage an initial facility comprising four modules, each rated at approximately 0.8MW, providing a combined 3.2MW of IT capacity.
The wider development has a proposed final capacity of 35.2MW across six buildings. That larger figure represents an eventual campus objective rather than infrastructure currently operating at the site.
Construction of the first phase is underway, with opening targeted for 2027.
The Five Star Movement’s intervention centres on the difference between the project’s proposed design and the environmental conditions that will arise once computing equipment, cooling plant, and electrical systems are operating.
Among the requested details are daily and annual water requirements, the source of cooling water, and the facility’s expected effect on the local electricity network.
Questions have also been raised about noise, carbon dioxide emissions, and the potential contribution of mechanical equipment to local heating.
The concerns are requests for further evidence. They do not establish that ROM1 has exceeded environmental limits or that the finished facility will operate outside its approvals.
The distinction between the initial building and the ultimate campus is particularly important when assessing electricity demand.
The first phase’s 3.2MW IT capacity describes power available to computing equipment. Total facility demand will also include cooling systems, electrical conversion losses, pumps, controls, security equipment, and other supporting services.
As additional buildings are developed, the cumulative requirements will depend on their technical specifications, operating loads, and infrastructure efficiency.
Digital Realty has described the project as incorporating efficient cooling and renewable electricity procurement. Those measures will influence environmental performance, but their actual effect cannot be established solely from design commitments.
Cooling systems must transfer heat away from computing equipment and ultimately reject it to the surrounding environment or to a useful external heat customer.
Where water is circulated through closed cooling loops, it may be retained within the system rather than continuously consumed. The wider cooling arrangement can nevertheless require additional water, depending on the heat-rejection equipment selected.
Air-cooled systems generally reduce direct water demand but may consume more electricity under certain operating conditions.
The appropriate assessment must therefore consider both water and power rather than treating the two resources independently.
Renewable electricity purchasing introduces a separate distinction. Contracting electricity from renewable sources does not mean that all electricity physically consumed at the facility originates from nearby renewable generation at every hour.
The development will still require dependable access to the electricity network and appropriate arrangements for resilience and backup power.
ROM1’s location within an established urban area also places attention on noise and construction activity. Mechanical plant may operate for extended periods, while future expansion could introduce additional equipment and transport movements.
Digital Realty’s redevelopment plans include improvements to the surrounding site, with the project also intended to support interconnection and digital infrastructure services.
Municipal representatives supporting the development have pointed to the reuse of existing industrial property as an advantage.
The latest political intervention does not stop construction or establish that the project’s environmental assessment is inadequate. It does, however, create a specific request for information about the infrastructure needed to operate the facility.
The figures disclosed for electricity, water, noise, and heat will determine whether its planned environmental performance can be assessed against the eventual scale of the campus, rather than against the smaller initial development alone.
