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 Climate Minister 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. This 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 a maximum connected load of 500 megawatts for its data center in Kronstorf—yet has so far been exempt from the EIA.

Authorities to “review immediately”
The case in Kronstorf is now being reevaluated: “I have instructed the responsible department to immediately review the legal situation for Kronstorf once again,” says State Councilor for Climate Stefan Kaineder (Greens). After all, if the Lower Austrian authorities recognize an EIA requirement for “a comparable data center,” “then we must examine this decision very closely.”

The advantage of an environmental impact assessment, particularly for critics of the project, would be that all documents and reviews could be centrally handled and accessed through the EIA process.

Government Negotiates EIA Requirements for Data Centers
At the same time, State Councilor Kaineder is calling for uniform rules nationwide: “It cannot depend on which state a data center is planned in. Projects that require such enormous amounts of electricity, take up large areas of land, and may impact water resources belong in a separate 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 an EIA requirement per se in the future. The SPÖ supports this, while the ÖVP believes 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.