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Google data center in Douglas County, Georgia: Planned investments in Germany of a good one billion euros
Photo: Connie Zhou/ AP
Google has considered a commercial area almost 20 kilometers south of BER Airport to build a data center there for the greater Berlin-Brandenburg area.
A Google spokesman confirmed a corresponding report by the »Märkische Allgemeine« on Friday.
According to this, the data center should possibly be built on an area of around 30 hectares in the Schenkendorf district of Mittenwalde (Dahme-Spreewald district) between the L30 and the A13.
Google spokesman Ralf Bremer said Google has initiated the purchase of a property in Mittenwalde and is evaluating other options in the region.
»Further steps are required before the final takeover.
Nevertheless, we are pleased that we are making progress with our plans in Berlin-Brandenburg.«
On the one hand, according to reports, there is still no development plan that would allow the construction of a data center.
On the other hand, there is no firm commitment from the local energy supply companies to be able to supply the planned system with sufficient electricity.
However, Google is also keeping other options open and wants to make the start of construction dependent on the demand for cloud services in the capital region and in Brandenburg.
Google needs revenue outside of the advertising business
Brandenburg's Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD) expects a positive economic boost for the region.
"That's good news beyond the city limits, Brandenburg and Berlin benefit from it."
Google has been working for years to free itself from the dependence on the advertising business on the Internet and to find new sources of revenue.
Sundar Pichai, the boss of the Google group Alphabet, is therefore also trying to build up the cloud division as an important source of income - the competitors Microsoft and Amazon have already succeeded in doing this.
Against this background, major investments in Germany were approved just over a year ago in order not to leave the lucrative German cloud market to the market leaders from the USA or German providers such as Ionos from the United Internet Group.
According to the plans presented a year ago, by 2030 investments in Germany should add up to a good one billion euros.
With this money, Google is expanding its Frankfurt am Main cloud region with a new data center in Hanau.
On the other hand, a completely new cloud region Berlin-Brandenburg is to be set up in Mittenwalde.
pbe/dpa
