How Data Centres
become Good Neighbours

Data centres have become a symbol of the AI age — as the indis­pens­able back­bone of the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion. The expan­sion of this type of infra­struc­ture prop­er­ty not only strength­ens the future viabil­i­ty of our coun­try: They also offer oppor­tu­ni­ties for prop­er­ty devel­op­ment and invest­ment. But how can such projects be designed in such a way that they fit in well with their social envi­ron­ment — espe­cial­ly with regard to sustain­abil­i­ty and loca­tion compat­i­bil­i­ty? In this Valdivia expert tip, we show which features and argu­ments can be used to ensure that data centres are perceived as an asset.

Germany as a lead­ing location

Commer­cial data centres are the support­ing struc­ture of our digi­tal world: cloud comput­ing needs places for its cloud; arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence needs “brains”; social media needs plat­forms for the data of billions of users. Germany has now reached a podi­um posi­tion with this infrastructure:

• In Europe, Germany is the leader in terms of the number and capac­i­ty of data centres^1/2; in second place world­wide, ahead of the UK and China².
• Frank­furt am Main is one of the top ten glob­al loca­tions — the only one in the EU³.
• Further growth is on the hori­zon: 71% of oper­a­tors were plan­ning expan­sions in 2024, almost two thirds of which involved signif­i­cant invest­ments⁴.

Such achieve­ments boost self-confi­dence and moti­va­tion for further expan­sion. But with growth comes respon­si­bil­i­ty: suffi­cient consid­er­a­tion should be given to envi­ron­men­tal and site compat­i­bil­i­ty. Then data centres have a chance of being accept­ed as good neigh­bours or being realised with­in a reason­able peri­od of time.

Ideas for climate protection

The sustain­abil­i­ty and ener­gy effi­cien­cy of data centres in partic­u­lar are often crit­i­cised. Many oper­a­tors have already sought ways to reme­dy this or are plan­ning to do so by 2026⁵:

• Recy­cling of hard­ware — 71 %
• On-site ener­gy gener­a­tion — 44 %
• Battery stor­age for grid stabil­i­sa­tion — 34 %
• Ener­gy and envi­ron­men­tal manage­ment systems — 27 %
• Combined heat and power gener­a­tion, waste heat util­i­sa­tion — 23 %
• Liquid cool­ing circuits — 10 %
• Hydro­gen gener­a­tors — 8 %

The list not only reflects a grow­ing sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty; it also shows the range of possi­ble measures. It should not be forgot­ten that digi­tal­i­sa­tion also reduces CO₂emis­sions over­all, for exam­ple by replac­ing busi­ness trips and jour­neys to the work­place with video confer­ences, online collab­o­ra­tion and work­ing from home. Larg­er data centres can also offer their munic­i­pal­i­ty a real secondary bene­fit as an addi­tion­al ther­mal power plant.

Sustain­abil­i­ty in mind 

Data centres can present them­selves more sustain­ably in a vari­ety of ways and thus increase their accep­tance. The large roof areas are ideal for photo­voltaics, plant­i­ng, perhaps even as public roof gardens with summer lounges. Facades, which often have large blind areas, can also be greened; we recent­ly report­ed on the bene­fits for the climate and buildings.

Howev­er, sustain­abil­i­ty can also be expressed in the archi­tec­ture itself. Microsoft, for exam­ple, is plan­ning data centres made of wood; a first trial  is current­ly being built near Wash­ing­ton DC. Designs such as those present­ed by Data­Cen­tre Maga­zine  in Novem­ber 2023 go much further: with archi­tec­ture that blends harmo­nious­ly into nature and the land­scape or sets accents with a futur­is­tic design. Such designs also promote social sustain­abil­i­ty — in line with the ESG goals of the Unit­ed Nations. The inclu­sive Akquinet data centres in Hamburg, Norder­st­edt and Itze­hoe are a good exam­ple of holis­ti­cal­ly conceived sustain­abil­i­ty: not only do they meet high climate protec­tion stan­dards, they are also specif­i­cal­ly designed for employ­ees with disabil­i­ties.

Strength­en­ing the location

Data centres can also have advan­tages for their loca­tions — and not just as employ­ers or taxpayers:

• The edge data centre cate­go­ry in partic­u­lar offers advan­tages for its direct neigh­bour­hood. Designed to be small­er than the usual large systems, they enable faster data process­ing and lower laten­cy times — an advan­tage for real-time appli­ca­tions in particular.
• In gener­al, data centres strength­en the future prospects of a region, as they form an impor­tant element in the ecosys­tem for start-ups and there­fore also for new jobs. Digi­tal and hybrid busi­ness models were already the basis of 92% of all start-ups in 2023⁶- with a corre­spond­ing need for comput­ing power and data storage.

Of course, other factors are neces­sary for a live­ly start-up scene, such as finan­cial back­ers or network­ing with research insti­tu­tions. Howev­er, decen­tralised data centres and flex­i­ble office space  also appeal to prop­er­ty devel­op­ers and investors. With a contem­po­rary, sustain­able project design, it should no longer be diffi­cult to find new loca­tions and convince people in the neighbourhood.

Sources

1. “Cloud­scene Cover­age Map”, Cloud­scene, Febru­ary 2024
2. “Glob­al Data Centre Market Statis­tics”, Brightlio, March 2025
3. “The 50 most power­ful data centre markets world­wide”, Data­cen­ter Insid­er 2024
4. “Data centres in Germany: Current market devel­op­ments, Bitkom/Borderstep Septem­ber 2024
5. “Data Centre Impact Report Germany”, German Data­cen­ter Asso­ci­a­tion e.V., March 2024
6. “German Start­up Moni­tor 2023”, Feder­al Asso­ci­a­tion of German Star­tups / Price­wa­ter­house­C­oop­ers, Septem­ber 2023

(Image source: istockphotos)