Located in Southern Jutland, the 285 hectare plot of land was purchased via Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc and is the second site the company has purchased in Denmark, following its previous acquisition in the town of Fredericia. The location of the Google’s second site in the town of Aabenraa is situated in close proximity to one of Apple’s planned data centres, which is expected to open in 2019.

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Google currently has no plans to construct a data centre on either of the plots of land purchased, but has done so in order to have the land available, if it suddenly proves necessary to expand the company’s amount of data centres.

A key factor in Denmark’s attractiveness as a location for data centres is its stable, secure electricity supply. Surrounded by Norway and Sweden to the north and Germany to the south, it can tap into its neighbours’ grids for additional supplies if necessary. In addition, the country’s year-round moderate temperatures offer the ideal environment for data servers, which have an operating temperature of 20 degrees. Finally, the high percentage of renewable energy that is included in Denmark’s electricity grid and the possibility of recycling the waste heat from the data centres to provide heating to the country’s citizens as part of its district heating system, makes Denmark an appealing proposition. The last point is particularly important, given that data centres require large amounts of energy to operate.

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Commenting on the news on Twitter, the Danish Prime Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen wrote:
- Google is purchasing land in Aabenraa. Denmark is developing into a European data powerhouse. Facebook, Google and Apple all show an interest in our stable, green energy. Growth, jobs and progress. Well done.