The rapid growth of data centres across Europe is concentrating high-value assets in locations not assessed, and in many cases not designed, for the climate risk profile they now face. For brokers placing this class, the gap between standard commercial construction and what underwriters now expect has become a material factor at submission.
London sits at the centre of that tension. The city added a record 193 megawatts of new data centre capacity in 2025, according to CBRE, making it Europe's largest and fastest-growing market. That concentration of infrastructure value is colliding with a worsening climate risk profile: HDI Global's analysis places London in a multi-hazard environment already dominated by pluvial flooding and emerging water scarcity, with rainfall extremes projected to intensify further through the end of the century.
HDI Global and HDI Risk Consulting have identified four factors now shaping loss exposure for European data centres: micro-location risk, resource availability, construction standards, and operational resilience. The distinction between macro-level and site-level risk has become the operative one for underwriters. A facility outside a designated flood zone may still be exposed if local drainage capacity is inadequate or critical equipment is at ground level.
In Amsterdam, HDI's analysis notes that coastal and pluvial flooding can disrupt operations without a site falling in a broadly elevated-risk area. Construction standards are a further underwriting concern. Data centres are frequently built to commercial specifications with flat roofs, internal downpipes, or valley gutters that can fail under extreme rainfall.
HDI identifies inadequate emergency overflow in roof drainage and ground-level positioning of critical equipment as specific gaps. Cooling failure is the second-most common cause of impactful data centre outages after power problems, according to the Uptime Institute's Annual Outage Analysis 2025. As AI workloads push energy consumption higher, pressure on both power supply and cooling capacity is growing.
The scale of capital entering the sector makes submission quality an urgent question. Global insurance premiums tied to data centres are projected to nearly double by 2030, from US$10.6 billion to US$24.2 billion, according to Swiss Re Institute. S&P Global estimates total insurable values for a single data centre can now reach US$30 billion per location, a concentration that demands detailed technical submissions from brokers.
The practical implication for brokers is that location and construction quality determine what coverage is available and on what terms, not just the headline insured value. Johanna Rohrer, risk analyst natural hazards and climate risks, and Gareth Hopkins, risk engineer, of HDI Global and HDI Risk Consulting said sites should be assessed using forward-looking climate data before selection. They identified emergency drainage overflows, elevated critical equipment, and compartmentalisation of key areas as targeted measures that can materially reduce loss exposure.
Operational resilience carries equal weight at placement. Early warning systems, defined emergency response plans, and redundancy across critical infrastructure and IT architecture each reduce downtime and the business interruption exposure brokers need to scope correctly.
HDI's analysis places London within a broader European pattern: growing data centre demand colliding with a risk profile that standard site selection and construction practices were not built for. Brokers who close that gap at submission are better placed to secure appropriate terms in a market where underwriters are asking more detailed questions than before.
