Germany’s Data Centre Pipeline Is Heading East: 40 Per Cent of Planned Capacity Now Sits in Brandenburg

Hesse operates roughly 70 per cent of Germany’s recorded data centre capacity. Of the 6.4 GW now planned or under construction, barely a quarter is in Hesse, while Brandenburg alone accounts for 40 per cent and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is joining the map with a 240 MW campus near Rostock. The data centre pipeline is following the grid, not the internet exchange.

70 per cent today, 26 per cent tomorrow

An analysis published by IFA Berlin on 24 September, based on Data Center Map figures collected in August 2026, gives the clearest picture yet of where Germany’s data centre capacity sits and where it is heading. Of 573 facilities in the database, grid connection capacity was recorded for 218: 151 in operation and 67 planned or under construction.

The operating stock totals 1,763.9 MW. Hesse accounts for 1,229.8 MW, or about 70 per cent, across 63 facilities; Brandenburg follows at a distance with 123.5 MW and North Rhine-Westphalia with 107.7 MW.

The pipeline looks very different. The 67 planned or under-construction projects add up to 6,433.7 MW, 3.6 times the operating stock. Brandenburg leads with 2,598 MW, about 40 per cent of the total, ahead of Hesse with 1,688.9 MW (26 per cent) and Baden-Württemberg with 708 MW. Hesse still has more projects, 24 against 22, but the average Brandenburg project is around 118 MW against roughly 70 MW in Hesse.

The publisher is candid about the limits: MW figures are missing for most facilities, announced projects shift, and a single campus can move a state’s total. The direction of travel, however, matches the German Datacenter Association’s Datacenter Outlook 2026/27, which says grid capacity and time-to-market, not market potential alone, now decide where capacity is built. It is also the logical consequence of a market that, as we argued in September, trades land rather than data centres: the land that trades is the land with a grid prospect.

Brandenburg: 15 projects, three on hold, one grid

Entwicklungsstadt counted 15 data centre projects in Brandenburg in September: seven in planning, five under construction and three paused. The list reads like a who’s who of hyperscale: AWS in Baruth and Massen, Vantage in Mittenwalde, Yondr in Ragow, NTT in Brieselang, VIRTUS in Wustermark, maincubes in Nauen and Schwarz Digits in Lübbenau, the last two scheduled for 2027. Citing Bitkom, the article expects Brandenburg’s connected capacity to rise from under 50 MW to almost 900 MW. The anchor remains Lübbenau, where Schwarz Group is building on a former power plant site with an initial connection of about 200 MW and a stated investment of around €11 billion.

The constraint is the same as everywhere else. According to the article, the regional grid reached its limits in 2025 because of the number of connection requests. Figures from the distribution grid operator Mitnetz Strom, quoted by ingenieur.de, show the scale: at the end of 2025 it held 90 data centre connection requests totalling 16.8 GW, of which nine projects with about 1.4 GW had binding reservations. The grid area spans parts of Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, and requests overlap, but less than a tenth of the requested capacity is reserved.

At transmission level, 50Hertz is the gatekeeper. It says it aims to deliver about 2,000 MW of grid connections for new data centres by 2029, and is expanding its Thyrow substation south of Berlin to up to 500 MW for Vantage’s Genshagen campus. The other side of the ledger is the 720 MW campus proposed near Freyenstein: no application has been filed with 50Hertz, five other projects are ahead in the queue, and construction is seen in 2030 at the earliest.

The north-east enters the map

The most striking new entry is not in Brandenburg at all. On 27 August, Schwarz Group and the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern announced a data centre at Dummerstorf near Rostock: 240 MW by 2033, an estimated investment of up to €5.6 billion, and a stated path to 1 GW of connection capacity by 2045. The site can connect to the 380 kV grid, the campus is to run on renewable electricity only, the climate allows free cooling, and a letter of intent with Stadtwerke Rostock covers waste heat.

Put simply, the plan implies roughly €23 million per megawatt of planned capacity. The grid work is already under way: 50Hertz confirmed a connection for a large data centre near Rostock in November 2025, and the 220 kV lines between Güstrow, Bentwisch and Gnewitz are being upgraded to 380 kV, with commissioning scheduled for 2026/27. The logic is the one an Arcadis guest author spelt out on Handelsblatt Live in May: a grid connection of relevant size and permittable land now matter more than proximity to the metropolis.

Hesse is not standing still

None of this means Frankfurt is finished. GDA puts the Frankfurt market at about 1,274 MW, 29 per cent of FLAPD colocation capacity, and Hesse still has the most projects in the pipeline. But the ceiling is documented: according to ingenieur.de, grid operator NRM Netzdienste Rhein-Main allocates new capacity from 3.5 MW upwards pro rata and expects restrictions until the mid-2030s, and JLL puts the connection time for facilities of 50 MW and above at up to 13 years. The state’s answer is administrative: the Hessian digital ministry’s agenda, presented in March, promises a statewide register of potential sites, a model development plan and standardised contracts for grid connection and waste heat.

Berlin shows what a hard constraint looks like in numbers. In Stromnetz Berlin’s 2025 allocation round, 70 large-consumer requests totalling about 2,300 MVA competed for 365 MVA, roughly 16 per cent of what was asked for, and the 2026 round has been postponed. The figures cover all large consumers, not only data centres, but they explain why so much of the Berlin pipeline physically sits in Brandenburg.

Federal policy is following the market. The Netzanschlusspaket, heard by the Bundestag’s economic affairs committee on 7 October, creates the first statutory basis for prioritising connection requests; the four transmission operators told the committee that demand will exceed supply in the short and medium term. A proposal in the Einkommensteuerreformgesetz 2027 would allocate trade tax from data centres by connected capacity or electricity consumed, to the benefit of rural host municipalities such as Dummerstorf. Together with the maturity-based procedure we described in First Ready, First Served, the rules now reward the large, mature, rural project that dominates the eastern pipeline.

What this means for investors

The map of value has moved. 70 per cent of operating capacity is in Hesse, but 40 per cent of the pipeline is in Brandenburg and the next gigawatt is planned on the Baltic coast. Underwriting that still prices “Frankfurt or nothing” misses where capacity is actually being added.
A pipeline figure is a grid figure. 6.4 GW of announced capacity meets 1.4 GW of binding reservations at one eastern distribution operator. The question for any site is not how many megawatts are announced but how many are contractually reserved, and for when.
Scale is the entry ticket in the east. The average Brandenburg project is around 118 MW and the Rostock campus starts at 240 MW. Smaller sites compete for the same substations and rank below mature, large projects under the maturity-based procedure.
Pre-letting has become a condition. In BCS Consultancy’s summer survey, the share of investors requiring at least 75 per cent pre-let before building rose from 12 to 42 per cent in six months; 91 per cent named power availability the most important siting factor.
Hesse remains the liquid market. Frankfurt has the tenants, the exchange and the pricing; the regions have the megawatts. Portfolios that combine both can work the gap between cluster rents and connection cost outside it.

This intersection of real estate, engineering and energy is exactly where Prime East operates through its dedicated division PE Property Solutions: site and grid connection assessment, technical due diligence, structuring of operator and lease models, and transaction support across Germany and Poland.

Conclusion

Germany’s data centre map is being redrawn by substations rather than by demand. The operating stock will remain Hessian for years, but growth is being planned where 380 kV lines, wind power and permitted land coincide: in Brandenburg, in the Lausitz and now on the Baltic coast. For investors, grid due diligence moves from technical annex to the core of the investment case. The pipeline will be built not in the order it was announced, but in the order it is connected.

Talk to us

Are you evaluating a data centre site in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern or the Rhine-Main region, or do you hold land with a realistic grid connection prospect? Prime East assesses sites, connection status and operator models, and brings investors, operators and landowners together. Contact our team for a confidential discussion of your investment or project enquiry.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and does not constitute investment, legal or tax advice. All figures are based on publicly available sources.

70 per cent today, 26 per cent tomorrow

Brandenburg: 15 projects, three on hold, one grid

The north-east enters the map

Hesse is not standing still

What this means for investors

Conclusion

Talk to us

Sources

Contact

Head Office Germany

Office Hannover

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Germany’s Data Centre Pipeline Is Heading East: 40 Per Cent of Planned Capacity Now Sits in Brandenburg

70 per cent today, 26 per cent tomorrow

Brandenburg: 15 projects, three on hold, one grid

The north-east enters the map

Hesse is not standing still

What this means for investors

Conclusion

Talk to us

Sources

Share this article

Contact

Head Office Germany

Office Hannover

Office Warszawa

Office Katowice