Wirth Group Plans A 707MW Data Center

Wirth Group has announced plans for Engrida, a 707MW hyperscale data center project in Philippsburg, Germany, built around existing high-voltage infrastructure near a former nuclear power plant.

The project is planned for an industrial park outside Philippsburg in Baden-Württemberg.

It has received preliminary approval from the municipal council, and Wirth Group has agreed the required grid connection with grid operator TransnetBW.

The power connection is the core asset in the proposal.

Wirth Group managing director Markus Wirth said the project would connect energy, grid and data using the existing 380kV connection at the former KKP site.

Engrida is also expected to use high-voltage transmission equipment being built to serve a wind power plant.

Wirth said the high-voltage infrastructure should be made available for Germany's digital sovereignty.

That claim is tied to the site assets named in the announcement, not to a disclosed sovereign-cloud customer or government procurement contract.

Grid Access Drives The Site Choice

The proposed campus is tied more to transmission infrastructure than to an established local data-center cluster.

The source material says Philippsburg does not currently host data centers, while seven facilities are located in nearby Karlsruhe according to DataCenterMap.

The planned site could cover a former Goodyear tire factory at Philippsburg-Huttenheim Industrial Park and the nearby decommissioned Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant.

Wirth Group has not released precise information about the physical size of the data center.

That leaves the project's strongest evidence in the power and permitting details rather than in tenant demand.

The source names the 707MW capacity target, municipal preliminary approval and TransnetBW grid connection, but it does not identify cloud customers, anchor tenants or a construction start date.

Investor Search Remains Open

Engrida is being developed by Wirth Group, a company founded in 1997 and known primarily for real estate investments in renewable energy.

The project is also awaiting a major investor.

Philippsburg mayor Stefan Martus said in an interview with SWR that the town is mainly interested in attracting German or European companies as partners.

The municipality is also expected to benefit from a district heating system that would draw waste heat from Engrida's server racks.

That partner preference gives the proposal a digital-sovereignty angle without turning it into a completed sovereign-cloud project.

The plan shows how German municipalities and developers are trying to convert power assets into data-center capacity, while still needing capital and tenant commitments before the infrastructure becomes operational.

Energy Storage Adds Another Local Constraint

The data-center plan is not the only energy project proposed around Philippsburg.

Power company EnBW has announced plans for a battery energy storage system in the town with 800MWh of storage capacity, expected to be completed by 2027.

The storage plan does not prove that Engrida has solved all power, permitting or financing issues.

It does show that the area is being positioned around grid infrastructure after the nuclear site's decommissioning.

For cloud and data-center operators, the project puts Germany's infrastructure question in concrete terms: Engrida has a 707MW target, preliminary municipal approval and an agreed grid connection, but Wirth Group still has not named a major investor, anchor tenant, construction timetable or final data-center footprint.