Microsoft Bergheim (INKA terra nova) data center, Bergheim, North Rhine-Westphalia

Microsoft broke ground on March 12, 2026 on a data center cluster in the Rhineland coal region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with sites in Bergheim, Bedburg and Elsdorf, and building permits granted for Bedburg and Bergheim. Bergheim's data center, on the INKA terra nova industrial estate at Paffendorf, is under construction, and the current fight there is over its backup power.

On August 19, 2026 the Cologne district government held a public hearing in Bedburg on objections to the emergency power supply for the first Bergheim-Paffendorf building, where Microsoft plans a plant of 36 diesel engines outside the building, Radio Erft reported. The objections come mainly from conservation groups, and BUND, the German conservation federation, says the diesel units would emit large amounts of CO2 and take up a great deal of farmland.

Microsoft plans to keep up to 3,400 tonnes of diesel on the site as an emergency reserve and to install solar panels there, Radio Erft reported after questions from the local SPD. The city said Microsoft may draw only as much power as the operation needs, keeping supply in Bergheim and neighbouring towns stable, and the Greens want the waste heat used for a planned swimming and health centre, the ErftOase. Bergheim mayor Volker Mießeler called the groundbreaking a significant moment for the city.

Critics doubt the jobs, since data centers are highly automated and few permanent posts remain after construction, and they question how Bergheim and the other host towns will share in the business tax; Germany's national data center strategy, adopted in March 2026, proposes a special allocation rule that still needs legislation. A similar hearing on 66 diesel engine units for the planned Bedburg data centers is due in November 2026, before the Cologne district government decides on permits for both towns' backup power.