The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, urges the new Frankfurt city government to tackle the climate and energy policy regulatory projects mentioned in the current coalition agreement which focus on data centres, and to do this in close cooperation with the digital infrastructure operators based in Frankfurt.
This is the only way to further strengthen Frankfurt as a digital location and achieve the desired sustainability goals: “As a location, Frankfurt has acquired numerous advantages of a European Internet metropolis over the past 25 years and has the potential to remain THE European digital hub in the future. Data centres are the backbone of digitalisation and therefore part of the solution for greater climate protection and sustainability. Urban carbon neutrality will only succeed with digital technologies and applications. The interaction with the operators of digital infrastructures should therefore be designed in a consistent and future-oriented manner. A close exchange between local political decision-makers, local digital companies, society and the economy is therefore indispensable,” says Dr Béla Waldhauser, spokesperson for the Alliance.
Plans such as restrictions on the use of harbours and commercial areas for data centres, one-sided regulations on the use of waste heat, and for the future energy supply for data centres, as found in the supplementary agreement to the coalition agreement of the new city government signed in mid-June, are likely to make Frankfurt unattractive as a data centre location in the medium term, Waldhauser continued.
Since 2018, the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany has established itself, among other things, as a point of contact at state and federal policy level for issues and approaches to solutions in the area of sustainability potentials of digital infrastructures.
