Logistics developer and owner P3 Logistic Parks is to build a large-scale data centre campus on a former barracks site in Hanau, Germany.
P3 has taken over the 250,000 m² brownfield site housing the former Großauheim barracks from the Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben (Institute for Federal Real Estate).
The construction of the campus will take place in several phases, with at least eight data centre modules to be built on an area of around 200,000 m² over a period of 10 years. P3 will decontaminate the site – which has been vacant since 2008 – before carrying out the deconstruction, recycling the current building stock and reusing the materials for ground works.
Climate protection and energy efficiency will play a central role in the design of the campus, under sustainability goals agreed with the city of Hanau. A key feature is that the complex will be built and operated sustainably and supplied with 100% green electricity. An electrical supply of 180 megawatts is planned.
To protect local flora and fauna, P3 will implement a series of species protection measures. These include the establishment of compensation areas and the relocation of animals in need of protection. In addition, P3 is creating suitable habitats, such as swift towers and bat roosts, and is greening the project area.
Soenke Kewitz, managing director of P3 Logistic Parks Germany, said: ‘The e-commerce boom and increasing teleworking are making it ever more clear how important data centres are for us all. Without them, advancing digitalisation is not possible and the need to meet this demand with a green alternative is enormous.’
The plans for the site also envisage the construction of a combined heat and power plant. This will ensure a climate-friendly district heating supply for Hanau from 2024, after the supply contracts with the Staudinger power plant expire. A transformer station is also being built on the project site by the local grid operator, Hanau Netz GmbH.
Claus Kaminsky, mayor of the city of Hanau, said: ‘The development of the former Großauheim barracks into a data centre campus that is also very large by international standards, represents for us the centerpiece of the implementation of our data centre strategy. The joint development and binding definition of sustainability goals above the generally accepted level – for example, half of the energy will be fed from local renewable sources – was particularly important to us, also due to the size of the campus when construction is completed.’
