South of Leipzig, a combination of data center, green hydrogen production and battery storage is to be built on the site of a former briquette factory. A citizens’ initiative next Sunday will decide whether the so-called “Green Power Park” becomes reality, says Wolfgang Pielmaier, managing director of PV Backoffice GmbH in Neukieritzsch. The company will manage and finance the project in the Lobstädt district. Pielmaier is also a co-partner in Move On Energy, which operates the nearby Witznitz energy park.
The entrepreneur is confident that citizens will choose the project. The “Green Power Park” is to be supplied with green electricity from the second project, the Kleinzössen Energy Park. This is an approximately 85 hectare solar park on a dumping area of a disused opencast mine. “By connecting the Kleinzössen energy park with the “Green Power Park”, we will have the first green data center here,” explains Pielmaier. Battery storage systems and hydrogen are also planned as long-term storage.
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The location of the two projects is expected to create up to 150 jobs. In addition, further new jobs can be expected through subsequent settlements.
However, some residents want to prevent both projects. Among other things, they fear that strictly protected species will become extinct and agricultural land will be lost.
“It’s normal that very well-founded questions arise about how individual areas are handled. I actually think that’s very good,” says Pielmaier. It is therefore important to him to create a balance – either by preserving existing nature or by proactively promoting parts of nature. The aim is “added value for people and nature, as well as for the local population”.
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It is currently unclear which company could take over the data center in the future. The tech giant denied reports that Microsoft could settle there.
According to the Saxon state government, the establishment of a tech company would further promote structural change in the region and also strengthen the IT economy in the Free State as a whole. In a statement it says: “The “Green Power Park” project is an investment project that corresponds to the industrial and economic policy goals of the Saxon state government.” #