Municipality of Groningen shares plans for large data center of unknown company

There may be a new large data center on the Westpoort industrial estate near Groningen, according to plans by the municipality of Groningen. It is currently unknown which company wants to build that data center.

Construction plans for the data center.
Image: Municipality of Groningen

A PDF document from the municipality of Groningen shows that the possible data center will take up twenty hectares on the Westpoort industrial estate. The municipality is said to have been approached last year with plans for the data center. The construction of the possible data center has not yet been determined; the city council of Groningen still has to pass judgment on this.

The municipality says it expects 125 permanent jobs to be involved with the data center. Due to the maximum building height, the initiator would probably use air cooling for the data center. If the plans go ahead, the municipality expects that the residual heat can be used to heat 5000 to 10,000 households, according to the shared document.

It is not known which company is planning to build a new data center in Groningen. Responsible alderman Berndt Benjamins of D66 does not want to confirm to RTV Noord who the parties involved are. There is currently a NorthC data center at Westpoort and that company is also planning to expand, but according to RTV Noord they are not doing that with twenty hectares.

Another alderman, Roeland van der Schaaf of PvdA, reports to the regional medium that he will enter into discussions with local residents, although he does emphasize that the data center must end up in an industrial area. At the same time, he acknowledges that a 20-hectare property has an impact on the environment. It is not known when the data center will be commissioned, should the plans be approved.