Schwarz Group, the owner of German supermarket chain Lidl, is planning a new data center campus in Lübbenau.

As reported by RBB24, the 13-hectare site could total 200MW across six buildings, though further details weren’t shared.

Schwarz lidl Lübbenau
Schwarz Group plans new data center campus in Lübbenau – Enrico Gabriele via LinkedIn

The buildings will serve the company’s own retail operations as well as its cloud services division. The first building could be completed by the end of 2027.

The campus will offer its waste heat to the local municipality.

Lübbenau is a town in the Upper Spree Forest-Lusatia District of Brandenburg, some 90 km south of Berlin. The 1.3GW coal power plant in the town was shut down in 1996 after some 40 years in operation, and has since been demolished. The site is now a commercial area.

Schwarz Group’s Kaufland division has had a logistics center in Lübbenau since 1996. The campus is reportedly set to be located close by.

Founded in 1930, the Schwarz Group (aka Schwarz Gruppe) is Europe’s largest retailer, operating stores under the Lidl and Kaufland brands. Schwarz Digits is the IT and digital division of Schwarz Group, and under that sits StackIT, the company’s cloud division, as well as other cybersecurity and AI units.

StackIT was launched in May 2022 with the aim of creating a European cloud solution in Germany. The company lists three data centers on its website: DC01 and DC 08 in Neckarsulm and Ellhofen, Germany; and DC 10 in Ostermiething, Austria.

Built in 2018, the first phase of DC10 offers up to 1,000 sqm (10,760 sq ft), with another 4,500 sqm (48,400 sq ft) to be offered in phase two; it reportedly has a PUE of 1.1 and utilizes river cooling. DC08 offers 300 sqm (3,200 sq ft) across two data halls; built in 2017, the 650 sqm building has 1.5MW of capacity.

The company recently partnered with Google to offer a sovereign storage option to Google Workspace customers.