Glossary
The words you need to read a data center. The industry's (what it already measures) and those of our territorial lens (what we alone aggregate). Each definition is short; technical terms link to the page that details them.
- 🏭 Industry
- 🌍 Territory
- 📖 Sector
- Acceptability 🌍 Territory
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A project's ability to fit into its territory without major friction — water, land, residents, governance. This is what we grade, from A to E. The industry measures the machine's efficiency; we measure its acceptability.
Our method → - Chilled-water / heat reuse (waste heat) 🏭 Industry
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The heat given off by servers. Wasted if vented, valued if recovered to warm buildings or district heating networks. The industry tracks it via the ERF indicator.
The standards → - Colocation (colo) 📖 Sector
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A data center that hosts the servers of multiple clients, as opposed to the « captive » data center of a single company. Most of the European fleet is colocation.
- DCp 🏭 Industry
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Data Center Performance (ETSI standard). A label from A to I, like the energy label on a fridge — but it grades the machine's efficiency, not the site's acceptability.
The standards → - Documentation confidence 🌍 Territory
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Our reliability index for the sources behind a grade. A grade never appears without it; below 40 % coverage we write « insufficient data ». We do not grade the unknown.
Our method → - ENAF (natural / farm / forest land) 🌍 Territory
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Natural, Agricultural and Forest areas — the land that artificialization consumes. Preserving it is a public goal (« no net land take »).
- Hyperscaler 📖 Sector
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An operator of very large data centers, typically the cloud and digital giants. Their sites concentrate electrical loads comparable to those of a city.
- ICPE (classified installation) 🌍 Territory
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The French permitting regime for facilities with an environmental impact, which governs large data centers. Its file is a first-rank public source.
- ISO/IEC 30134 🏭 Industry
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The series of international standards that defines the official data center indicators (PUE, REF…). The authoritative language — the one our energy pillar leans on.
The standards → - Land artificialization 🌍 Territory
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The conversion of natural or farm land into sealed surface (buildings, parking, roads). A data center on virgin soil weighs more heavily in the land grade than one on an already-artificialized brownfield.
- Moratorium 🌍 Territory
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A temporary suspension of projects decided by a local authority while it sets a framework. A strong signal of local tension around data center siting.
- Natura 2000 · ZNIEFF 🌍 Territory
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Protected natural areas (Natura 2000) or areas inventoried for their ecological value (ZNIEFF). A project's proximity to them weighs in the land & biodiversity grade.
- Opposition 🌍 Territory
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The observable public opposition to a project: petitions, citizen groups, legal appeals, moratoriums. We grade the documented fact that it exists — never an intent ascribed to anyone.
- PPA 🏭 Industry
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Power Purchase Agreement: a direct electricity-supply contract, often renewable, between an operator and a producer. A real lever — but announced ≠ measured until proven.
The standards → - Public inquiry 🌍 Territory
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The regulatory procedure by which residents are consulted on a project before authorization. Its holding, quality and follow-up feed the governance pillar.
- PUE 🏭 Industry ↓ lower = better
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Power Usage Effectiveness: the energy efficiency of the infrastructure. Close to 1 = very efficient; 2.0 = the French average; 1.28 = the most recent sites. The industry's flagship metric (ISO/IEC 30134-2).
The standards → - REF 🏭 Industry ↑ higher = better
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Renewable Energy Factor (ISO/IEC 30134-3): the share of renewable energy consumed by the data center, between 0 and 1.
The standards → - Seveso 🌍 Territory
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The classification of sites posing a major industrial hazard. The presence of a Seveso site around a project nuances its local-impact grade.
- Site grade · project grade 🌍 Territory
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Our two grades. The site grade assesses the context the project endures (water, grid, land); the project & process grade assesses what the operator chooses. Proof lifts the second, never the first.
Our method → - Tier (Uptime) 📖 Sector
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A classification (I to IV) of a data center's reliability and redundancy. It speaks to operational robustness, not environmental impact.
- TVB (green & blue network) 🌍 Territory
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The network of ecological corridors and biodiversity reservoirs that development must not sever.
- Water stress 🌍 Territory
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The strain on a territory's water resource. Not to be confused with the machine's water consumption (WUE): we measure the pressure on the local resource, not just the site's appetite.
- WUE 🏭 Industry ↓ lower = better
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Water Usage Effectiveness: the water consumed by the data center per unit of IT energy. A machine-side measure — which we complete with the territory's water stress.
The standards → - ZRE (water allocation zone) 🌍 Territory
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An area where the water resource is already in chronic deficit and subject to reinforced sharing rules. A project sited there starts with a handicap on the water pillar.