GreenThe benefits and requirements of a data centre for your municipality
Bright & Green develops, builds and operates data centres itself. For a municipality this means one contractual partner for the entire lifetime, a full account of the position from the outset, and no commitments attached to figures that nobody can yet substantiate.
Your contractual partner for the entire lifetime
With many data centres the counterpart changes: a developer secures the land, an investor acquires the project, an operator moves in. At Bright & Green it remains the same company that develops, constructs and operates the site. The municipality therefore deals with one and the same partner throughout the lifetime of the asset.
Your counterpart is François van Burk, managing partner. He conducts the discussions with the administration and the council himself.
Benefits for the municipality
Four points can be substantiated. How large each contribution turns out to be depends on the site, which is why Bright & Green states no figure at this stage.
Trade tax
A data centre is a permanent establishment in your municipality. Trade tax from the operation flows to the site on a lasting basis, irrespective of the wider economic cycle.
Waste heat for the heating network
A data centre supplies low-temperature heat all year round. With a heat pump, it becomes district heating for housing, schools and swimming pools. Since the German Energy Efficiency Act requires new data centres to reuse a share of their energy, the municipality is the obvious customer.
Jobs in construction and operation
During construction, trades from the region work on site. In operation, technical jobs are created locally; their number is lower than at a manufacturing plant, but the positions are permanent and skilled.
Upgraded commercial land
The grid connection, substation, fibre and roads built for the data centre are available to the neighbours in the business park as well. Land with a secured grid attracts further businesses.
What a data centre requires
A data centre takes up land, grid capacity and infrastructure. Bright & Green sets out these requirements in full before the council takes its decision.
Land
A data centre requires a large commercial plot that is then no longer available for other businesses. In day-to-day operation, however, it generates no appreciable lorry traffic.
Grid capacity
The connection capacity the data centre occupies is no longer available to others. Where a dedicated substation is built, however, the region gains grid capacity.
Traffic during construction
Over a period of months there are heavy transports for transformers and containers, as well as general construction traffic. Bright & Green presents a traffic concept before the first transport arrives.
Noise and landscape
Cooling and backup power tests are audible, and the halls are large in volume. The permissible values at the nearest housing are demonstrated during the permitting procedure, and the design is agreed with the municipality.
Water
Whether and to what extent a data centre requires water depends on the cooling concept. Bright & Green discloses the demand on its own initiative.
How the procedure runs
From the municipality's point of view the procedure comprises five steps. The planning authority remains with the municipality at every one of them.
Initial meeting
Bright & Green holds the first meeting with the mayor, the administration and the council groups, setting out what is planned, what it requires and which questions remain open.
Site and grid assessment
The assessment covers land, grid capacity, fibre, water and the waste-heat customer. Only once the grid connection proves viable does the next step follow.
Land-use planning
Land-use planning covers the resolution to draw up the plan, consultation of the public and the statutory bodies, and the necessary expert studies. Bright & Green supplies the documents and answers questions at every meeting.
Agreements
The parties conclude the urban development agreement, the waste-heat agreement with the municipality or municipal utility, and provisions on traffic, design and decommissioning.
Construction and operation
During construction and in operation the municipality has a permanent point of contact. Bright & Green remains on site because the company operates the data centre itself.
Principles of our work with municipalities
Early engagement
Bright & Green seeks the discussion at the town hall before land is secured, not afterwards.
Transparency
Bright & Green sets out the position in full, identifies open questions as such, and states figures only once they are reliable.
Public information
An information event is held before the council takes its decision, and the company remains available throughout construction, answering critical questions itself.
Continuity
Bright & Green develops, builds and operates. The company that files the application is the same one that later runs the data centre.