Video conferences in the home office, watching series and computer games over the Internet: The demand for online services is also increasing, fueled by the corona pandemic, and with it the number of data centers in which companies can operate their servers. Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main area are the fastest growing locations in Europe, says Ralph Hintemann from the Berlin Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability. The growth in capacities was even stronger in 2021 than in 2020.
Problems on site
Huge demand for electricity, immense waste heat and high space requirements with relatively little job creation – in the affected municipalities, however, the settlement of data centers means not only welcome tax income but also problems.
Frankfurt wants to intervene soon, the planning department has drawn up a concept for this. For the beginning of 2022, a decision is expected in the Main metropolis’s magistrate, says department spokesman Mark Gellert. The data centers are to be restricted to certain commercial areas, among other things, in order to prevent the displacement of traditional industries or craft businesses. Specifications for energy efficiency and building design are also being considered, but the specific approach of the city has not yet been clarified.
Frankfurt has around 60 company-independent data centers so far, and numerous more are planned. On the former Neckermann site in the east, an entire campus for data centers for the operator Interxion is to be built for around one billion euros. The US company Equinix has announced an investment of a similar amount. With the DE-CIX, Magnet is one of the world’s largest Internet nodes.
Many projects also in the surrounding area
People also want to benefit from this neighborhood in the Frankfurt area. In Hanau, for example, the former nuclear bunker in the Wolfgang district has given way to a new data center for the internet giant Google. Computing infrastructure for the growing demand for cloud services is being built on an area of 10,000 square meters – around 20 kilometers away from DE-CIX in Frankfurt.
Another, much larger data center is to be added on the site of the former Großauheim barracks in Hanau. In the final stage, its electricity consumption will be twice the annual consumption of the entire city of Hanau. The barracks area is to be converted into a commercial center. On the site with a total area of 38 hectares, four block-type thermal power stations for district heating, a transformer station and a photovoltaic system are planned, the power of which is to flow into the data center.
Both areas could not have been used for other projects such as residential development, says Hanau’s economic development manager Erika Schulte. Logisticians were also interested in the former barracks area – but that would have been unreasonable for the residents in view of the high levels of noise and traffic. The city did not want to leave the sealed area lying idle either. “That is also part of sustainability,” says Schulte. In addition, the project is to be designed according to the criteria of the “Blue Angel”, the aim of which is the environmentally friendly operation of data centers.
Promising branch
When deciding to settle there, in addition to trade tax income, new companies in the area were also in view. For example, IT companies, financial service providers and start-ups that need high computing power or service providers such as security and janitorial services could be considered, says Schulte. It speaks for data centers that it is an export-dependent, future-oriented and important industry for the general public.
(mho)