Google has now reportedly bought its second piece of land in Denmark and, ironically enough, the latest purchase sits just next door to the spot where Apple plans to build a data center for around $950 million by 2019. The plot itself is located in Aabenraa, which is near the country’s border with Germany. Furthermore, Google has not even revealed any plans for its new purchase, simply citing that it would like to have the opportunity to build its own data center in the area in order to bolster its network of European centers. The new plot takes up around 324 acres, which is substantially larger than its other Denmark property, but that makes some sense since the new purchase would be more readily tied into the networks of the surrounding countries due to its location. No details have been provided with regard to how much the search and technology giant paid out for its most recent plot of land.
Google’s other property within the country, meanwhile, sits only about 50 miles away to the north, in Fredericia, and is only around 180 acres in size. As with the Aabenraa purchase, that lot also sits unused for now. However, given the proximity between Google’s new lots and Apple’s planned expansion, the area could be designated as one the world’s largest central hubs for data centers if Google does decide to develop there. That’s because Facebook has also recently purchased a location for a data hub within that same region – in Odense, around an hour and a half’s drive away.
In the meantime, the country’s energy minister, Lars Christian Lilleholt says that Denmark welcomes wholeheartedly. He posits that the country’s low prices – as compared to others in Europe – and its ready access to energy pulled from renewable resources and “high security of supply” for that energy. That does also make sense for Google since the company has been making steady progress into its own environmentally friendly initiatives, as outlined in its latest Environmental Report for 2017, but also has some ways to go if it wants to meet all of its goals. The availability of green energy in Denmark could help push the percentage of energy consumed by its data centers down to substantial effect.