A new data center development is being planned outside Frankfurt, Germany.

Local press, including EntwicklungsStadt, GNZ, and IZ.de, report real estate firm Argaman Group is planning a new campus in Birstein, some 60km (37.2 miles) northeast of Frankfurt.

The Frank Cube project is planned on 11 hectares in the Main-Kinzig district of the municipality.

The data center is set to provide 200MW, and powered by a combination of on-site gas plant and nearby wind turbines.

The facility is scheduled to launch in 2028.

Frankfurt is one of the major data center hotspots in Europe alongside London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin (collectively FLAPD).

Estimates put Frankfurt’s total data center capacity at more than 2GW. Local operators include Equinix, NTT, Digital Realty, and CyrusOne, as well as the likes of Maincubes, CloudHQ, Iron Mountain, Green Mountain, Vantage, Yondr, Stack, Data4, Telehouse, Colt, Global Switch, NorthC, Mainova, EdgeConneX, nlighten, FirstColo, Data Castle, and numerous others.

As the city faces longer grid connection wait times and growing concerns around the impact of data centers, operators are starting to look at sites further out from central Frankfurt.

Telemark launches data center outside Dortmund

German telecoms firm Telemark has launched a new data center in Menden.

Menden is a city in the Märkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, some 30km (18.6 miles) east of Dortmund.

Opened last week, the 200 sqm (2,152 sq ft) facility was completed in six months, with some €2 million ($2.3m) invested. The facility features a hybrid cooling system with direct free cooling and expansion cooling.

Crämer IT-Solutions has been named as a customer of the new facility.

Founded in 1998, Lüdenscheid-based Telemark Telekommunikationsgesellschaft Mark was founded in 1998 as a subsidiary of the Lüdenscheid, Iserlohn, and Menden municipal utilities (Stadtwerke Iserlohn, Stadtwerke Menden, and Stadtwerke Lüdenscheid ). It has more than 400km (248.5 miles) of fiber in the area.

Data center coming outside Salzburg

In neighboring Austria, a cybersecurity firm is planning an AI data center outside Salzburg.

FragmentiX recently announced plans for a facility in the Salzburg municipality of Lend.

The 25MW facility will use natural cooling from the local Salzach River and will be developed in partnership with Consultoría Lutsch and Zatloukal Innovations GmbH.

The LEND AI Data Center (LENDAIDC) will be powered by local hydropower and focused on Austrian and European sovereign services.

Founded in 2018, FragmentiX is a cybersecurity firm focused on cryptography services.

“With Lend’s new AI data center – the LENDAIDC – our Austrian consortium, together with Dell Technologies, is sending a clear signal for the future of Europe,” said Werner Strasser, director general of fragmentiX. “In a world where data has long since become the most strategically important raw material and global competition is becoming increasingly fierce, Europe needs the same independence with data as it does with energy and raw materials. LENDAIDC combines state-of-the-art AI infrastructure with full control in Austrian and European hands. In this way, we are creating the basis for harmonizing technological innovation, economic competitiveness, and our European values.”