Proposals for a 700MW data center outside the town of Freyenstein in the state of Brandenburg, northeastern Germany, have sparked protests from residents.

The project, which will cost an estimated €25 billion ($29bn), was proposed by data center design firm Noya Generalplanung und Projektmanagement GmbH and developer Serban DC, and has yet to receive planning permission from the local authorities.

DCD has approached both firms for comment.

“In terms of scale, we’re talking about an AI hub, and AI [processing] is possible on a larger scale at supra-regional locations,” Serdal Güzel, Serban DC’s managing director, told Freyenstein’s residents at a town hall meeting about the project earlier this month.

Güzel added that the location of the proposed data center was also chosen because of the proximity of a 380kV power line running outside the village, though according to local media outlet tagesschau.de, it remains unclear if it can be connected to the new facility, with “negotiations with the energy supplier… still pending.”

Noya and Serban DC propose that the data center be built alongside a road connecting Freyenstein with Neu Cölln.

The site itself will comprise up to 20 buildings and a substation, some up to 27 meters (29.5 yards) in height, across 1.44 sq km (0.5 square miles). Construction costs have been estimated at €9 billion ($10.5bn), while the outlay for technical equipment is likely to be €16 billion ($18.7bn). The developers claim that the data center will create 1,200 jobs for the local area. If the project is approved by the local municipality, they said, construction could begin by late 2029.

News that the companies were presenting their proposal at Freyenstein’s town hall attracted protests from placard-wielding residents outside the building.

A Change.org petition against the project has garnered more than 1,200 signatures at time of writing.

“We want to preserve our beautiful homeland as we know it: with its nature, its streets and houses, its peace and quiet, its open spaces, and the history that our region and our town have experienced over the centuries,” Stefan Finke, a firefighter and leader of a local citizens’ initiative opposing the development, said. Other residents cited concerns about the data center’s potentially high water consumption, as well as its impact on local traffic patterns. “Our roads can’t handle it,” said one.

Serban DC is a data center construction consulting firm. It is part of the Turkish Serban construction group, owned by Açık Holding.

NOYA is an architectural & engineering firm that has delivered multiple data centers across Germany.

It is unclear if the project is being backed by a larger operator.

Brandenburg is an increasingly competitive data center market within Germany, with German technology association Bitkom predicting last year that the region has the potential to become the country’s third-largest.

Major projects announced in recent years include the formation of a joint venture between WBS Power and Prime Capital to build a 500MW data center on a disused military airfield in the region, and a 200MW campus in Lübbenau planned by the Lidl-owning Schwarz Group.

NOYA targets Demmin

NOYA Group is also reportedly involved in a planned 300MW data center in the city of Demmin in north-eastern Germany.

Demmin is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, some 180km (112 miles) north of Berlin.

As reported by local press, including NDR and Nordkurier, NOYA is working with ClimateChange Energy, a renewable energy development firm.

The campus would be developed on the east side of Demmin near the Siedenbrünzow substation, which is currently being upgraded. Substation works are scheduled for completion in 2028, and a data center could come online by 2030.

More than €1 billion ($1.2bn) is set to be invested in the project. The site will look to make its waste heat available to local district heating networks.

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.