European Commission adopts the Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in Energy

BRUSSELS, Belgium (3 June 2026): Today, the European Commission unveiled its Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in Energy, as part of the broader Tech Sovereignty Package. As Europe aims at accelerating its electrification and energy security, the roadmap highlights the growing role of digital and AI solutions in enabling a more flexible, efficient and resilient energy system. SolarPower Europe has issued the following statement in reaction.

Dries Acke, Deputy CEO of SolarPower Europe (he/him), said:  “Digitalisation and AI are becoming indispensable to building a more flexible, efficient and resilient energy system. They will help optimise electricity grids, unlock demand-side flexibility and support increased renewable integration, thereby reducing system costs, strengthening energy security and accelerating Europe’s decarbonisation efforts.

The Strategic Roadmap provides an important framework to ensure digital innovation delivers tangible benefits for consumers, businesses and the wider energy system. Success will now depend on turning ambition into deployment, especially accelerating the rollout of smart grids and smart meters, and increasing cross-sector coordination. Strengthening cybersecurity and safeguarding critical infrastructure across the whole energy system must remain central as digitalisation comes with exposure to hybrid and cyber threats. Developing secure and sovereign AI solutions will be key to maintaining Europe’s resilience. 

As AI adoption accelerates and data centre capacity expands, Europe must ensure this growth strengthens rather than strains the energy system. Data centres should therefore be properly integrated through smarter planning, greater flexibility solutions and closer coordination between all stakeholders. The combination of solar and battery storage provides a prime opportunity for swift and sustainable data centre integration. This is why SolarPower Europe is signing the European Commission’s Declaration of Intent today, committing to work together with partners across the value chain to advance the sustainable integration of data centres into the EU energy system.” 

Notes: 

• The European Commission launched an AI Continent Action Plan in April 2025. Within this framework, the Commission set a target of tripling data centre capacity in the European Union in five to seven years.
   
• Tech sovereignty is Europe’s ability to act independently in the digital world by developing and controlling key technologies, data, and infrastructure, while reducing reliance on non-EU providers.
   
• The Tech Sovereignty Package includes four initiatives: the Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in Energy, the Communication on European Tech Sovereignty, the Cloud and AI Development Act and the Chips Act 2.

© European Union 2026