Network solutions company Avacon Connect and energy service provider enviaM Group have opened a data center in Germany’s northwestern state of Lower Saxony.

Located in the town of Sehnde, near the city of Hanover, the facility encompasses 2,000 square feet (185 sqm), has room for up to 28,000 servers, and cost €40 million ($46m) to build.

Avacon said that the data center would increase its computing power and overall digital resiliency, as well as support digital services in the energy, health, finance, transport, and insurance industries. DCD has approached the firm for comment.

“With the data center in Sehnde, we are specifically strengthening the digital infrastructure in the Hanover region,” said Rainer Schmittdiel, CTO at Avacon’s parent company, Avacon Group. “As a network operator, we bring the necessary expertise for secure and highly available operation – from energy supply and network connectivity to comprehensive security concepts.”

In a statement posted on Facebook, Avacon Group said that its new data center will draw power from a nearby solar power plant operated by the company, with waste heat from the building being diverted into the community through a district heating scheme.

The site also houses several diesel generators capable of providing an uninterruptible power supply for up to 72 hours if the facility’s grid connection is cut. The data center is additionally equipped with four protection zones and a 100Gbps fiber-optic connection with latency levels of below ten milliseconds.

Hanover boasts a small data center market compared to the rest of Germany, ranking 11th in the country according to Baxtel and supporting only four small facilities. Originally announced by Avacon in 2023, the opening of the region’s latest data center was welcomed by Lower Saxony’s minister of economy, Grant Hendrick Tonne.

“I am delighted by the commitment of Avacon and the enviaM Group to the data center site in Sehnde,” said Tonne at the site’s opening ceremony. “High-performance and secure data centers are a fundamental prerequisite for economic development and digital value creation today. They create reliable infrastructure and strengthen data sovereignty.”

Learn more about the data center market in Switzerland and the wider DACH region, and meet with other executives and experts at the DCN Zurich event later this year.