Langenhorn's municipal council has voted to keep pursuing a data center with up to 150MW of connected load, giving the Schleswig-Holstein project provisional approval after months of local opposition. The vote came August 26.

Developers Uniq Land and Erschließungsgesellschaft Nordfriesland (EG.NF) proposed the facility. The council's decision follows a consultation period in which residents, initially hostile, criticized the 27.5-meter (90ft) height of the two planned buildings and the transparency of the planning process. Municipal authorities have been approached for further comment.

"With the council's decision, we now have a clear planning process in place for Langenhorn," Uniq Land managing director Jens Kampkötter said.

What happens next?

Uniq Land has applied to build in the district of Mönkebüll within Langenhorn municipality. Authorities have reserved the right to consider alternative sites in the area. Construction is set to begin in March 2028 at the earliest — a timeline that leaves more than three years for studies, public input, and permitting.

Kampkötter laid out the sequence: "The necessary studies are being prepared, the public will have the opportunity to give their input, and ultimately it will be up to the municipality to decide under what conditions the project can go ahead."

The developer says it has already responded to residents' objections. "We've already taken on board the concerns raised by local residents, particularly around distances to neighboring properties, building heights and noise, and these are being addressed as part of the planning process," Kampkötter said.

Municipal authorities will now assess the project's impact on:

• the surrounding landscape
• distance from residents
• water use
• potential noise pollution

Power, cooling, and a 300MW ceiling

The 150MW figure may not be the end state. Plans call for the facility to draw power from regional wind farms, and for the site's connection capacity to expand to 300MW. Both hinge on upgrades to the regional electricity grid, according to DataCenterInsider.

Cooling will use a waterless closed-loop system — no evaporation, no continuous water draw. A waste heat reuse system is also planned, though the destination for that heat isn't specified in the current plans.

The grid dependency matters. In northern Germany, connection timelines for large loads increasingly determine project schedules as much as construction itself. A 300MW ambition tied to unspecified network upgrades carries schedule risk the developer hasn't quantified.

What does this change for Uniq Land?

The vote gives the Grünwald, Bavaria-based developer its clearest planning signal yet in northern Germany. Uniq Land's broader pipeline includes:

• a 21MW data center in Frankfurt
• additional projects of unspecified capacity in Berlin, Munich, Düsseldorf, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

None of those has reached the stage Langenhorn now occupies: a council-endorsed planning process with a named site and a provisional construction date.

The approval also marks a turnaround. A town hall meeting called to discuss the project produced a hostile reception, with residents attacking both the buildings' height and the opacity of the process. The council's August 26 vote suggests municipal leaders now see a path forward — conditional on the impact assessments to come.

For the DACH data center market, Langenhorn joins a growing list of projects pushing capacity beyond the Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin cores into regional northern Germany, where wind power and available land offset community resistance and grid constraints.