AWS Maintal-West data center, Hessen, Germany

Amazon Web Services' planned data center in the Maintal-West industrial area of Maintal-Bischofsheim, Hesse, Germany, near Frankfurt, is still at the start of the building permit process, and at a public information evening in May 2026 AWS would not say how much power or computing capacity it will have. The AWS data center is on the former DHL site in Maintal-West, and AWS aims to have it running within five years.

The event was AWS's first public information market of its kind in Germany, and many residents came. AWS manager Thomas Blood said grid power is already secured by contracts with the network operators, though it is not yet decided whether the new line will run above or below ground, and that climate studies, including on the effect on the nearby housing estate, are still missing. AWS says the site will be cooled by air alone 95 percent of the time, and that when water is needed, up to 93 percent of it will be collected rainwater used several times; it cites a global average power usage effectiveness of 1.15 for its data centers but gave no figure for Maintal.

Maintal already fought one data center. EdgeConneX's plan in the Doernigheim district came with its own gas power plant, and the protest against it, led by aerospace engineer Thomas Schadt and former ship's captain Mark Behrend, drew national coverage and stalled the project pending further studies. Schadt said he is less critical of the AWS plan because it has no gas plant, but still asked what happens if there is not enough rain for the cooling system. One visitor, told no megawatt figure, said he did not feel taken seriously.

Mayor Monika Boettcher, an independent, expects a billion-euro investment and does not expect protests like those against EdgeConneX, because grid power is available. She wants to join Hanau and Dietzenbach in calling for a new way of calculating business tax for data centers so more money stays with the host towns. The city says an agreement for Maintal-West rules out any further data center in the newly developed industrial area.

The building permit process and the missing climate studies come next, with the Maintal city council and the permitting authorities deciding.