SPIE responsible for technical equipment of new data centre near Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Frankfurt, 26 June 2025 – SPIE, the independent European market leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, is responsible for installing the entire range of technical equipment at the new FRA03 data centre currently being built in Schwalbach near Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The data centre has a total IT capacity of 16 megawatts (MW), meets stringent standards in terms of energy-efficient power supply and is being erected on behalf of maincubes^[1]. The project is being implemented in a joint venture with the Lupp Group, which is responsible for the finishing work.

SPIE’s range of services includes refrigeration, ventilation, heating and sanitary engineering, fire alarm and electrical engineering, photovoltaic and gas extinguishing systems, the building management system and information and communication technology, including access control. Also included is the installation and commissioning of major components such as 66 recirculating air cooling units, 12 refrigeration machines and 8 battery systems as part of the uninterruptible power supply (UPS). A reliable supply of cooling and electrical power is particularly crucial for operating data centres: “To ensure that the power supply runs reliably and the heat generated by the racks is continuously dissipated, we work with redundancies. That is how we ensure 99.99% availability,” explains Volker Reiling, Head of Operations/Business Development at SPIE Data Center GmbH in the Building Technology & Automation operational division of SPIE Germany Switzerland Austria.

Sustainability plays a key role in the state-of-the-art FRA03 data centre. Its power usage effectiveness (PUE), the standard metric for measuring energy efficiency in data centres, is planned to be below 1.2, thus fulfilling the high standards for energy-efficient power supply. “Data centres are the infrastructural backbone of digitalisation,” says Thomas Wacker, Chief Development Officer at maincubes. “In order to achieve the sustainability goals for resource-efficient IT systems, we are already gearing our data centre to meet future legal requirements in relation to planning, construction and operation, which also includes optimal energy efficiency.”

Some of the waste heat generated during operation will be fed directly into the municipal heating network for reuse, thus ensuring a highly efficient energy cycle. Long-term partnerships and a power purchase agreement (PPA) concluded with Göttingen’s municipal utility company also ensure that 100 per cent of the electricity required comes from renewable sources. Further measures: rainwater collected on the roofs will be used to water the surrounding outdoor areas, the façades will be landscaped with plants and a photovoltaic system will generate additional electricity for use within the building.

Overall, three divisions of SPIE are collaborating on the project (Building Technology & Automation, Information & Communication Services and Industry Services & Wind) and jointly carrying out over 70 per cent of the work themselves. “With our expertise, we cover every aspect of technical building equipment – a unique selling point that sets us apart from the competition. That saves time and means fewer touchpoints between the various teams of workers,” emphasises Jörn Ettenhofer, General Manager of Building Technology & Automation operational division at SPIE Germany Switzerland Austria. “With our multi-technical services, we are making a decisive contribution to the expansion of high-performance digital infrastructure in Germany.”

Data centres are the basic prerequisite for digitalisation and indispensable for meeting the continuously growing demand for digital applications. With over 2,000 data centres and an IT connection capacity of over 2,700 MW, Germany is already the largest location for digital infrastructure in Europe. With the four-storey data centre on Kronberger Hang in Schwalbach am Taunus, maincubes is expanding its network of data centres across Europe. The work on the first phase of installations is scheduled to be completed by March 2026.

_{[1] maincubes is a leading developer and operator of data centers in Europe}