US investor plans large data center in Lower Saxony
Next to a former coal-fired power plant with a substation on the Mittelland Canal, the Carlyle subsidiary Telis Energie is planning a large data center.
(Image: Christof Windeck / heise medien)
The company Telis Energie Deutschland, part of the US investment firm Carlyle Group, plans a large data center in Lower Saxony. It is to be built on an area of approximately 38 hectares next to the site of the former Mehrum coal-fired power plant. The power supply there is particularly simple: the large Mehrum/Nord substation is connected to the 220-kilovolt grid and is to receive an additional 380-kV connection.
It also houses the world's first reactive power compensator with supercapacitors for grid stabilization (Siemens Energy E-STATCOM). The coal-fired power plant is currently being demolished. The new owner of the site plans a gas-fired power plant, and a battery storage system is also likely being considered.
Presentation to the local council
The plans of Telis Energie Deutschland were made public through a presentation to the Mehrum local council and the Hohenhameln municipal council. Telis Energie is applying for a building permit. According to this, the construction of the first block of the data center is scheduled to begin in 2028.
It is not yet known how many blocks are planned or what capacity the entire data center will have in its final configuration. According to information from NDR, investments of around 1 billion euros are planned.
Carlyle founded Telis, which also includes Telis Energie Deutschland, in 2022. The goal is to invest in renewable energy such as wind power and photovoltaics.
Videos by heise
Carlyle plans big
Carlyle also owns the US company Copia Power, founded in 2021. It develops large projects for power-hungry companies, i.e., industrial sites with strong power supply: "Powered Land" primarily for data centers. As an example, Copia Power cites the Harquahala Complex near Maricopa, south of Phoenix, Arizona. A capacity of 1 gigawatt (GW) is planned there in the final configuration.
For comparison: According to estimates, all existing data centers in the Frankfurt/Main region, the largest German location, together have a capacity of just over 1.1 GW.
Copia Power, on the other hand, is currently developing several projects in the USA with a total capacity of up to 8 GW. The actual consumed power depends on the respective users to whom Copia rents or transfers the projects.
Mehrum Coal-Fired Power Plant
The Mehrum power plant, which went into operation in 1965, most recently had an installed capacity of 750 MW. It was officially shut down in 2021 and then briefly put back into operation due to supply bottlenecks caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is now being demolished.
Since 2017, the plant has been majority-owned by the Czech EnergetickĂ˝ a PrĹŻmyslovĂ˝ Holding (EPH) or EP Energy. EPH, in turn, belongs to the PPF Group of Petr Kellner, who died in 2021 and was once the richest man in the Czech Republic.
According to the presentation for the municipal councilors, Telis Energie is considering temporarily supplying the Hohenhameln data center with electricity from the planned Mehrum gas-fired power plant. In principle, however, there is a lot of electricity from wind and solar power in Lower Saxony.
(ciw)
