Data centres have a direct impact on municipal planning and infrastructure processes. Their development requires suitable land, high-capacity power connections, robust fibre-optic connectivity and clear approval and coordination structures. At the same time, they can create new impetus for regional value creation, cooperation with energy providers, the use of waste heat and the positioning of a region as a digital infrastructure location. However, these opportunities do not materialise automatically. What matters is a clear regional need, the right type of data centre, early integration into energy and heat planning, viable financing, the interests of the stakeholders involved and public acceptance. The National Data Centre Strategy, published in March 2026, also underlines the role of municipalities in site selection, network and heat planning, and planning and approval procedures.
This is the interface addressed by the workshop “Data centres as a strategic location factor – opportunities for municipalities between digitalisation, energy and financing” at Forum Kommunal 2026. The starting point is the municipal perspective: what contribution could a data centre make to the development of the region, which type of data centre fits this objective, and how can a potential development be supported strategically? The workshop will discuss the key site criteria, requirements for electricity and heat networks, the possible integration of waste heat into municipal heat supply, and suitable financing and participation models. It will also examine how municipalities can clearly formulate and effectively represent their interests vis-à-vis operators, investors and other infrastructure stakeholders.
What is crucial is structuring the project at an early stage and on a sound basis. Municipalities need a reliable basis for decision-making in order to assess opportunities, limitations and trade-offs realistically. This includes information on regional demand, potential users and anchor customers, land, network capacity, energy requirements, heat consumers and planning law. On this basis, suitable cooperation, operating and financing models can be developed. Public funding can support individual project components – such as planning, energy efficiency, heat networks, research or resilience – but it cannot replace a viable business model or a clear allocation of responsibilities and risks.
The workshop will show in practical terms what role municipalities can play in this process: as strategic initiators, planning authorities, mediating interfaces between business and the public sector, partners in energy and heat network questions, or actors in regional location development. Municipal influence does not automatically mean municipal ownership. Depending on the objective, a municipality can prepare sites, bring partners together, act as an anchor customer, participate through a municipal company or, above all, create suitable framework conditions. In this way, data centres can become an important factor in regional attractiveness – provided that their development is embedded in an overall municipal strategy and regional added value is considered from the outset.
Forum Kommunal 2026 will take place from 25 to 27 August 2026 in Bingen am Rhein. The workshop “Data centres as a strategic location factor – opportunities for municipalities between digitalisation, energy and financing” is scheduled for Wednesday, 26 August 2026, at 12:00. For aconium, Maxi Sophie Kussatz, Senior Investment Advisor for Infrastructure Projects, and Malwina Razmand, Funding Advisor for National Funding Programmes, will deliver the programme session.