A 150MW data center announced for Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany has met with local opposition.
The facility proposed by developers Uniq Land would be built on a 592,015 sq ft (55,000 sqm) site outside the village of Langenhorn in North Frisia, with an option to expand its connection capacity to 300MW if necessary.
However, the project received a hostile reception at a town hall meeting on June 18 to discuss the proposals, and municipal planning permission has yet to be granted.
"We deliberately selected Langenhorn because it offers outstanding conditions for building sustainable digital infrastructure,” Uniq Land’s managing director, Jens Kampkötter, told DCD, citing Schleswig-Holstein’s status as one of Germany’s leading states when it comes to the generation of renewable energy. “At the same time, the project will help strengthen Germany’s and Europe’s digital sovereignty by expanding the availability of modern, resilient digital infrastructure. We believe Langenhorn is an ideal location to combine sustainable energy resources with the infrastructure needed to support long-term economic growth and digital innovation."
Construction of the data center is planned to start in March 2028, according to Data Center Insider. This is contingent on planning permission from the municipality of Langenhorn, a decision that local authorities have postponed following resident feedback on the project during the town hall meeting, reports NDR.
Several voiced their skepticism about the proposed height of the two buildings on the site – both 27.5 meters (90 ft) high – and about the transparency of the planning process itself. “The data center wasn't mentioned once in the building committee meeting two weeks ago,” one resident told the meeting, according to SHZ. “If they had been more transparent, there would have been more trust.”
Uniq Land is a data center developer based in Grünwald, Bavaria. If approved, its data center at Langenhorn will join a relatively small regional market compared to others in Germany, with only eight facilities operational in Schleswig-Holstein, according to DataCenters.com.
However, the state’s location next to major offshore wind farms has led to intense interest from developers in its potential as a data center hub, with proposals for two other facilities – a 200MW data center in Busdorf and an AI data center of indeterminate compute in Schuby – leading to calls from environmental organization BUND SH for local authorities to publish a statewide strategy for the facilities.
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