Re-evaluation

Will There Be an Environmental Impact Assessment for Google in Kronstorf After All?

Google is currently building a data center on this site in Kronstorf.(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

The latest controversy surrounding the Google data center in Kronstorf (Upper Austria): State Councilor for Climate Stefan Kaineder has now instructed his agency to “immediately” re-examine whether an environmental impact assessment is necessary after all for the U.S. company’s mega-project. The reason for this is a decision from Lower Austria.

Until now, no environmental impact assessment (EIA) was required for Google’s mega data center in Kronstorf. That was the ruling of the Upper Austrian EIA authority in 2020. That decision could now be called into question—specifically because of a ruling in neighboring Lower Austria.

In Leopoldsdorf, Lower Austria, another U.S. corporation, CloudHQ, also plans to build a server farm. A few days ago, the authorities there determined that an EIA is required for the project. The main reason for this is the planned emergency power generators with a capacity of approximately 470 megawatts. By way of comparison: Google plans for its data center in Kronstorf to have a maximum connected load of 500 megawatts at full capacity.

Authorities to “review immediately”
“I have therefore instructed the relevant department to immediately review the legal situation for Kronstorf once again,” says State Councilor for Climate Stefan Kaineder (Greens). Because if the Lower Austrian authorities recognize an EIA requirement for “a comparable data center,” “then we must examine this decision very closely.”

State Councilor for Economic Affairs Markus Achleitner (ÖVP) sharply criticizes the review request: A valid official decision already exists for the project. These official decisions must be respected, “even if they may not fit into the Greens’ political worldview,” says Achleitner. “Further delays and artificially created uncertainty harm Upper Austria as a business and labor market hub.”

The main advantage of an environmental impact assessment, particularly for critics of the project, is that all documents and reviews can be centrally processed and accessed through the EIA. Any EIA for Kronstorf would likely apply only to the full expansion of the server farm, since the first construction phase has already been approved by all relevant authorities.

Government Negotiates EIA Requirements for Data Centers
At the same time, Provincial Councilor Kaineder is calling for uniform rules nationwide: “It cannot depend on which province a data center is planned in. Projects that require such enormous amounts of electricity, take up large areas, and may impact water resources belong in their own category under the EIA Act.”

The federal government is currently negotiating an amendment to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, which is intended to speed up the assessment process. A point of contention in the negotiations is whether data centers should be subject to mandatory environmental impact assessments per se in the future. The SPÖ is in favor of this, while the ÖVP believes that server farms are already covered by the existing provisions in the law. The NEOS tend to oppose an automatic EIA requirement for data centers but are open to discussion if the amendment speeds up the procedures themselves.