Update on Frankfurt Data Centre Masterplan

On 22 March 2022, the announced data centre concept of the city of Frankfurt was finally presented to representatives of the press by head of the planning department Mike Josef and head of the economic department Stephanie Wüst.

The draft resolution for updating the commercial land development plan was submitted on 21 March 2022 and has recently been reviewed by the members of the city council who passed the resolution on 9 June 2022.

The concept divides the city into suitable areas, restricted suitable areas and exclusion areas for company-independent data centres. Sossenheim, Rödelheim, Griesheim, Gallus, Ostend, Fechenheim and Seckbach have been designated as suitable areas.

Suitable areas are commercial areas in which the establishment of non-corporate data centres is favored by regulation. In restricted suitable areas, non-corporate data centres can be constructed as well, with special security requirements applying to the site infrastructure. In these areas, data centres shall only constitute complementary commercial use, whereas the suitable areas are specifically designated for the construction of data centres.

According to projections, it should be possible to meet the land requirement of 75ha by 2030 through these designated areas. Commercial areas that have not been explicitly defined as suitable areas or restricted suitable areas are regarded as exclusion areas for company-independent data centres and will also be safeguarded accordingly in the future under planning law.

Furthermore, a “Blue Angel” certification for all newly built data centres will be strived for in the future and a city-wide heat concept will be designed in order to be able to ideally use the high waste heat quantities of the data centres. Whether this will be sufficient to meet the city's climate targets, however, will only become clear in a few years' time.

Further information is available here.