Schwarz Group plans new data center in Lübbenau and wants to use waste heat for the city

Waste heat from the data center as an energy source

Stefan Hees, Head of Data Center and Compute Services at the Schwarz Group, sees particular opportunities in the location. „Ein Rechenzentrum dieser Größe bietet großes Potenzial auch für die Menschen vor Ort, wenn wir es bestmöglich in die bestehende Infrastruktur einbetten, said the Head of Data Center and Compute Services, Stefan Hees.

The site in Lusatia is attractive for such projects because both land and power grids have been expanded there in recent years for industrial settlements. Lübbenau is also one of the municipalities that, following the phase-out of lignite, are increasingly looking for new economic perspectives.

Lübbenau site: Opportunities for Lusatia

The Schwarz Group already operates data centers at several locations in Germany and has been continuously expanding its capacities for years. With the additional facility in Lübbenau, the company would significantly expand its presence in eastern Germany.

Mayor Helmut Wenzel had already advocated in recent weeks for greater industrial use of the site, pointing to the importance of new jobs. Concrete statements from Wenzel on the Schwarz Group's current data center project were not initially published.

It remains unclear how many jobs will be created by the construction and subsequent operation. There was also initially no statement on the question of whether existing municipal heat plans need to be adjusted.

Open questions on jobs and timetable

Observers interpret the project as a signal that large retail and technology corporations are increasingly relying on their own data center locations in order to reduce dependencies on external cloud providers. The parallel use of waste heat is seen as a model with which the energy-intensive industry can become more involved in local energy concepts.

There are already similar projects in the region in which industrial waste heat is fed into municipal networks. Should the Schwarz Group implement its plans as announced, Lübbenau would, in the assessment of energy experts, be a further example that such concepts are gaining in importance in eastern Germany.