A large data center project is rumoured to be announced imminently in the state of Burgenland, eastern Austria.

According to reporting by Profil, which broke the story, the facility is likely to be built on a site up to 1.24 million sq ft (114,000 sqm) belonging to the Burgenland Economic Development Agency outside the town of Nickelsdorf.

When DCD asked Burgenland’s regional government to confirm the story, however, the regional government would only concede that enquiries from interested parties about hosting a data center on the site had been made.

“During the rezoning process, the [Burgenland] economic development agency informed us that a data center was planned for this site,” Nickelsdorf’s mayor, Gerhard Zapfl, told Profil, adding that the town had not been made aware of any plans for the site. “It affects my community. I want to know how many jobs this will create, how much energy will be needed, how much water.”

The same comment was provided to DCD.

The site outside Nickelsdorf is co-owned by the regional government of Burgenland and the Burgenland Economic Development Agency. In 2023, the two organisations announced that a business park would be built on the land. Between then and now, however, the Burgenland Economic Development Agency and the state’s public energy company, Netz Burgenland, have received several enquiries regarding the feasibility of supplying power to a large data center on the site.

According to Profil, the power requirements for the facility outside Nickelsdorf are likely to be in the tens of megawatts.

The notional appeal of building a data center near the town has increased in recent months with the opening of a nearby hybrid solar and wind farm. It would also be Burgenland’s first such development.

While Austria hosts 52 data centers, according to DataCenterMap, not one is located in its easternmost state.

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.