| Factor | Warsaw · Poland | RES1 · Reșița · Romania |
|---|---|---|
| DC market CAGR | ~18% (est.) | 19.93% (Mordor Intelligence) |
| Market maturity | CEE's largest market · growing queue | Greenfield · no competing DC density |
| Industrial electricity | ~€0.16/kWh | ~€0.14/kWh · Romania advantage |
| Grid availability (secondary) | Available in Polish secondary markets | 650 MVA adjacent at RES1 |
| EU jurisdiction | Poland · EU (since 2004) | Romania · EU (since 2007) |
| Entry pricing | Warsaw: established · higher | Pre-ATR origination stage |
| Water cooling | Site-specific | Bârzava river · 3.63 m³/s |
| Institutional support | Standard market processes | Partnership Agreement + Mayor Letter |
| Serbia connectivity | Indirect | Direct 400 kV link · Pančevo Jan 2025 |
| Balkan market proximity | Distant | Natural gateway to Balkans |
Poland vs Romania — the CEE data center choice
Poland is the established CEE data center market leader — Warsaw's primary market has attracted Google, Microsoft, and major colocation operators. For enterprises requiring proximity to Poland's 38M-person domestic market, Warsaw is the correct choice. For AI and HPC operators choosing a CEE base for EU-sovereign compute workloads, the choice between Poland and Romania is fundamentally about the intersection of power availability now, energy cost over time, and strategic positioning in the Balkans corridor — where Romania wins on all three.
Romania's 19.93% CAGR leads Poland's estimated 18% by a narrow but significant margin. Romania's electricity price at ~€0.14/kWh undercuts Poland's ~€0.16/kWh. And the Reșița-Pančevo 400 kV interconnection (operational January 2025) positions the RES1 corridor as the energy gateway between Central Europe and the Western Balkans — a network topology that Poland's Warsaw market cannot replicate.
The secondary market argument
Both Poland and Romania have primary markets (Warsaw and Bucharest respectively) and secondary markets (Polish regional cities; Romanian secondary cities including Reșița). The secondary market comparison favours RES1: documented HV grid adjacency at a specific, identified substation versus the need to find and qualify a secondary market site in Poland from scratch. RES1 has 18 months of origination work completed — grid documentation, legal instruments, municipal relationships, company registration. A developer entering a Polish secondary market in May 2026 starts that 18 months of work tomorrow.
The highest-CAGR CEE market. The most power-ready secondary site.
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