Methodology and sources.

Public sources only

DC Spotter researches European data centre projects through public records, company disclosures and reporting. The public beta presents a dated project snapshot. Source links make the underlying documents accessible; verification is shown at field level rather than assumed for an entire record.

• Planning and environmental registers: UK council applications via PlanIt, Germany's UVP portal, Italy's VIA portal, Dutch gazettes, Spain's BOE and BOA, and selected municipal and national records across Europe.
• Public journals: records of applications, correspondence and decisions, including Norway's eInnsyn.
• Land registries: the UK's open corporate ownership dataset (HM Land Registry CCOD), used under its published licence.
• Grid operators: published network plans, consultations and connection records. A network development or nearby substation is research context, not proof of a campus connection.
• Official announcements: press releases and project pages published by developers, operators and contractors themselves.
• Public procurement: the EU's Tenders Electronic Daily.
• Public job boards: hiring pages that companies choose to publish openly.
• Trade and local press: linked reporting on projects, investment and delivery milestones.
• Open satellite imagery: Sentinel-2 as a research lead for changes at tracked sites. Imagery alone does not confirm construction.

Editorial boundaries

• Our reporting uses public material, not confidential information, NDA material or leaked documents.
• We track projects and companies rather than individuals.
• Raw research candidates and unreviewed automatic matches are kept out of the public signal feed.

A source attached to a project may support one milestone without establishing its capacity, contractor or delivery date. The record's evidence labels show that distinction.

Evidence and estimates Est.

Recorded facts, reported figures and editorial estimates serve different purposes:

• Field labels distinguish verified or reported evidence from fields that remain unconfirmed or disputed.
• Delivery guidance comes from the cited source where available. DC Spotter estimates and opportunity windows are editorial interpretations, labelled separately.
• Locations may identify a campus or municipality rather than an exact building. Approximate coordinates are not site boundaries.
• Capacity views distinguish reported figures and estimates. Evidence-backed rankings use a stricter IT load subset. Grid connection capacity, generator ratings and regional programmes are different measures. Records without usable capacity figures are shown separately, and estimates are kept out of verified totals.

Stages follow public milestones

The tracker distinguishes Rumoured, Land secured, Planning submitted, Planning approved, Grid secured, Under construction, Fit-out and Live, with separate states for refused or paused projects. These are recorded milestones rather than a guaranteed sequence. A filing is not an approval, planning consent is not construction, and a proposed grid connection is not energisation. Read the stage alongside its source and evidence label.

Corrections and removals

For an inaccurate or outdated record, write to [email protected] with the project name, the field concerned and supporting source. We assess corrections against the public evidence and reflect accepted updates in the tracker. Recorded project changes can be explored in the changelog.