Microsoft is building a cluster of data centers in the Rhenish lignite region west of Cologne. It has sites at the INKA terra nova industrial park in Bergheim and the BEB61 estate in Bedburg, added Elsdorf in 2025, and has signed a conditional deal for about 23 hectares of farmland in Grevenbroich. Ground was broken on March 12, 2026; the grid company Westnetz is building new lines with 520 megawatts of capacity for the cluster. The next public hearing, on 66 diesel backup generators for the Bedburg data centers, is set for November.
The first hearing was held in Bedburg on August 19, 2026, on the backup power for the first building in Bergheim-Paffendorf: 36 diesel generators of up to 300 megawatts outside the building. The environmental group BUND says Microsoft uses batteries or fuel cells elsewhere, such as in Sweden, and that the finished campus of three data centers would have 99 generators emitting more than 106,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. "Building new fossil backup power while Microsoft elsewhere relies on batteries is a disgrace for climate policy," BUND said.
In Grevenbroich, the land deal depends on the city drawing up a development plan. The citizens' group "Kein Hyperscale in Grevenbroich" collected more than 1,400 signatures asking the state to drop the plans; the state parliament's petitions committee said it could do nothing further. BUND says the same pattern is repeating: land bought before the public was properly consulted.
Projects not tied to an area
Sites whose records name no county. Everything else is on the pages listed above.
North Rhine-Westphalia2
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Bergheim (INKA terra nova)Bergheim | Microsoft | Under construction | Not reported | |
| Microsoft Germany (Elsdorf) | Microsoft | Proposed | Not reported |
Where this comes from
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Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.