Telis Energie Unveils Plan for 500MW Data Center Campus in Northern Germany
April 1, 2026
In a significant move for Germany's digital infrastructure landscape, renewable energy developer Telis Energie Deutschland has announced a proposal to construct a massive 500-megawatt data center campus in Lower Saxony. The planned facility, situated on farmland north of the town of Mehrum near Hanover, underscores the continued geographic expansion of data center capacity beyond traditional hubs like Frankfurt.
The project envisions a sprawling campus covering 4.09 million square feet (380,000 square meters), featuring six buildings each standing 25 meters (82 feet) tall. If approved and completed, the site would rank among the largest data center complexes in Germany. Construction is tentatively scheduled to commence in 2028, with an estimated build period of up to two years. The company has stated the project is currently in its initial planning phases and awaits full approval from the local municipality.
The scale of the investment is substantial, with Telis Energie's managing director, Dr. Florian Zickfeld, indicating in a local media interview that the firm expects to invest at least €1 billion (approximately $1.14 billion) in the overall development. The campus is designed to host multiple tenants, with power supplied via high-voltage connections from a new gas-fired power station, complemented by plans for at least one additional substation. Beyond infrastructure, the developer anticipates the project will create up to 80 permanent jobs for technicians, security, and IT specialists once operational.
Telis Energie Deutschland is a subsidiary of the Telis Energy Group, a platform founded in 2022 by global investment firm Carlyle to develop a renewable energy pipeline exceeding 10 gigawatts across several European markets. Carlyle's involvement signals strategic interest in the digital infrastructure sector, having previously held stakes in data center businesses and pursued its own development projects. This announcement follows recent news of Carlyle being selected alongside operator CyrusOne to build data centers for the U.S. Army.
The proposed campus highlights the growing demand for data processing capacity in Northern Germany, leveraging its proximity to Hanover and its position roughly 155 kilometers (96 miles) south of the larger Hamburg data center market. While not on par with Frankfurt, the region is attracting significant investment, pointing to a broader trend of decentralization in Europe's data center geography.
Source: datacenterdynamics
