Today it is even an official government position, and one of the reasons the discussion has opened now is the same dynamic that has already led Helsinki toward small nuclear reactors: the rapid increase in electricity demand, with electric cars forming part of the equation alongside data centers and artificial intelligence.

The Finnish precedent

The story began in Helsinki, where the Finnish government decided to shut down district heating units powered by biomass and natural gas, replacing them with small modular reactors (SMRs). The project was assigned to the French group Gorgé and its subsidiary Calogena, which is developing the Cal-30 light-water microreactor, a 30 MWt “nuclear boiler” designed exclusively for decarbonizing urban district heating networks, without producing electricity.

Last March, Calogena secured new funding of $96 million to complete the final design of the technology, and it has already signed an agreement with the French Atomic Energy Commission for a pilot installation at the Cadarache research center. The project is no longer theoretical; it is progressing through concrete licensing steps.

Behind this decision lies something simpler than it seems: the more electric cars circulate in a city, the greater the need for stable, clean baseload energy that renewables alone cannot always guarantee.

Europe officially opens the door to SMRs

What started as a local decision in Finland has now become a pan-European strategy. In March, the European Commission presented a strategy to accelerate the development of small modular reactors (SMRs) and advanced modular reactors (AMRs) in Europe, estimating that this technology could mobilize entire industrial value chains across EU countries.

The goal is for the first European SMRs to be operational in the early 2030s, with these modular systems largely built in factories and transported ready to installation sites, theoretically reducing both construction time and cost compared to conventional large reactors.

Why Greece suddenly entered the discussion

The Greek government is not merely observing from a distance. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, speaking in Paris at an international summit with the participation of around 40 heads of state on nuclear energy, made it clear that the time has come for Greece to examine whether modular reactors could become part of its energy mix. He announced the creation of an interministerial committee that will produce specific recommendations for the government.

We asked an expert for his view on the matter. Zisis Ioannidis, a physicist and energy advisor, explains that the growing electricity demand driven by the technological revolution—artificial intelligence and data centers—creates the need for stable and predictable baseload power that renewables do not always ensure.

Regarding safety in a seismically active country like Greece, he notes that seismicity alone does not exclude nuclear technology—Japan proves this—provided there is strict site selection, anti-seismic design, and a strong regulatory framework. As for timing, he is clear: the International Atomic Energy Agency estimates 10 to 15 years from a political decision to the operation of a first project in a country adopting it for the first time. A realistically optimistic timeline for Greece would therefore be the late 2030s.

The real pressure: data centers and artificial intelligence

The question is why this need is appearing so suddenly. The answer lies in the numbers of the Greek power grid. By October 2025, 19 data center connection requests had been submitted to ADMIE totaling 1,189 MW, of which 315 MW had already received final connection offers and 873 MW were in the study phase.

A few months later, in May 2026, total requested capacity toward ADMIE alone had reached about 2.5 GW, showing how rapidly the phenomenon is scaling.

According to a PwC study, data center development plans in Greece could mobilize up to €10 billion in investments, with Attica concentrating the largest share of demand. PPC has already presented a plan for a 300 MW mega data center in Agios Dimitrios, Kozani, leveraging energy infrastructure left behind by lignite phase-out, while ADMIE has signed an agreement with Serverfarm for hyperscale data centers.

Total data center connection capacity on the transmission grid is expected to increase from about 1.9 GW in 2025 to 2.9 GW by 2034.

Electric vehicles enter the equation too

During the same period that the Greek grid is under pressure from data centers, electromobility on the roads is growing faster than ever.

2025 was a record year for the Greek EV market, with 8,754 electric vehicle sales—the highest ever—representing about 6.2% of new registrations. Including plug-in hybrids, total electrified vehicle sales reached 20,551 units, with a 14.3% market share. Plug-in hybrid sales increased by 41.1% year-on-year, and BYD became the most popular electric brand in the Greek market.

The trend is not slowing down. In April 2026 alone, 1,016 fully electric vehicles were registered in Greece, a 31.1% year-on-year increase, along with 780 plug-in hybrids.

Across Europe, the picture points in the same direction. In 2025, EV sales in the EU grew by about 30%, reaching a 17.4% market share, with more than 2.5 million electric cars sold across the EU, EFTA, and the UK. By April 2026, the European BEV market share had risen to 19.7%.

In countries like Norway, EVs account for an astonishing 98.4% of new sales, followed by Denmark at 76.6% and Finland approaching 50%—the same country that advanced its nuclear transition driven by the surge in electric vehicles.

Two converging stories

What began as an independent decision in Helsinki is ultimately a rehearsal for what is now happening across Europe, including Greece.

Electric mobility is not just a change in how we move; it is a continuously growing load on an electricity system that must also power data centers, artificial intelligence, and the industries of the future.

Greece is still in the early stage of this discussion, with a committee that has not yet reached any concrete conclusions on location or timeline. But the fact that the discussion has officially opened—with the prime minister raising it on a European stage—shows how quickly electricity demand from electric vehicles has begun reshaping the debate about how we will produce power in the coming decades.