CyrusOne Frankfurt FRA7 data center, Frankfurt, Hessen

CyrusOne is building the FRA7 data center at its Frankfurt Westside campus in Germany, where local politicians celebrated the groundbreaking at the end of 2024 as a sustainability flagship project. Barely a year later, CyrusOne struck a deal with energy supplier E.ON to expand the Germany site's power from 84 megawatts to the 126 megawatts on record here, using gas-powered generators.

CyrusOne added the gas generators because Frankfurt's power grid could not supply the extra energy; grid operator Mainova says new large connections in the city have no chance until the 2030s. Marina Kuhn of the Federal Environment Agency said such on-site gas plants "occur frequently in the Frankfurt area," while economist Claudia Kemfert warned of the noise, fine dust and carbon emissions that come with them.