CloudHQ data centre in Leopoldsdorf must undergo environmental review

The planned data centre by US company CloudHQ in Leopoldsdorf, in the district of Bruck an der Leitha, will undergo an environmental impact assessment, ORF reported. The decision followed a screening procedure requested by CloudHQ and carried out by the Lower Austrian state government’s Department for Environmental and Industrial Law.

Deputy Governor Stephan Pernkopf said the decision meant that the submitted project would have to undergo an environmental impact assessment. He said growing demand for computing capacity made data centres necessary, but their construction and effects could be examined to protect the region.

Three units planned

The project involves building and operating three data centre units. Each would consist of a three-storey building with wastewater facilities and closed cooling systems incorporating a waste heat utilisation concept. A substation is also planned.

The project covers 6.7 hectares, although the entire area would not be built up. According to experts from the state government, the requirement for an environmental impact assessment arises in particular from the planned large emergency generators, which would have a combined fuel thermal output of about 470 megawatts.

Planning rules tightened

Lower Austria tightened its spatial planning law for data centres in the spring. Complexes covering more than three hectares now require both municipal zoning and a location ordinance from the state government.

Pernkopf said that, after more than 100 previous inquiries about new data centres, the number had fallen significantly since the rules were introduced. The Leopoldsdorf project had already been pending before the changes and is therefore not subject to those spatial planning requirements.