"1,200 Jobs Created in a Town of 50,000—There's No Reason to Refuse"[AIDC Coexistence Series]⑦

Ⅲ. Denmark, Cradle of 'One Team DC' and Public-Private Collaboration

From NIMBY to Coexistence

Building Trust Through Early Community Engagement

Fostering a New Generation of Practical DC Engineers

Editor's NoteIn an era of artificial intelligence (AI), the government has announced plans to build data centers with a total capacity of 18.4GW by 2035 as part of three major mega projects, aiming to secure a future national growth engine. What were once facilities that merely supported IT services, web applications, and data storage/sharing, data centers are now evolving into industrial platforms that produce and supply AI computational resources. However, despite a shared understanding that they are core infrastructure determining national industrial competitiveness, there remain many challenges to expanding AI data centers (AIDC). The Asia Business Daily has conducted on-the-ground reporting on cases in Finland, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, where hurdles such as electricity, permitting, water supply, and resident conflict have been wisely addressed. The series will also explore solutions for how AIDC can become an asset that coexists with local communities in Korea.

Fredericia, a small city with a population of 50,000 located 216 kilometers from Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital, operates its data centers through a distinctive model of collaboration between local governments, communities, and businesses. This once-quiet town became bustling when Google began operating its hyperscale data center in 2020. The city has come under the spotlight once again recently, as Google has acquired additional land for building another data center.

Peder Tind, mayor of Fredericia, was interviewed in his office at city hall on the 1st of last month (local time). Photo by Hyunju Lee

Peder Tind, mayor of Fredericia, said in a recent interview with The Asia Business Daily at his city hall office, "The process of building data centers has created about 1,200 jobs, of which around 100 are permanent positions," adding, "With another data center scheduled for completion next year, more than 200 additional jobs will be created."

Mayor Tind added, "Google has made investments both large and small for the local community in Fredericia, and the result is a data center that has generated jobs while also supporting various community facilities." With the arrival of the data center, a digital infrastructure cluster began to form, attracting new IT companies as well as major educational and research institutions like the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Mayor Tind stated, "The data center and the community are connected through a partnership."

From the selection of the site for the data center, there was active communication with local residents. Mayor Tind said, "When Google first announced it would come to Fredericia, we held community briefing sessions where citizens could participate, ask questions, and openly discuss the project." He went on to say, "It is important to have resident involvement from the earliest stages. Google genuinely listened to many of the opinions and respected the citizens. The residents did not view the establishment of the data center as a negative challenge or problem."

Mayor Tind also took the initiative in solving the water issue. Anticipating potential water supply problems as more data centers were being built, he stated that he signed a new technology industrial water supply (process water) facilities document. "We allowed the use of rainwater and certain types of treated water for cooling purposes," he said.

A 100-Year-Old Nautical School, Now Producing Data Center Technicians

Founded in 1911, Fredericia School of Marine and Technical Engineering (FMS) trains 'maskinmester'—marine operations and maintenance engineers. As a higher education institution with a typical course lasting four and a half years, it has produced technical personnel who work not only on ships and offshore plants but also in power plants and factories on land.

The school, divided into three campuses, has a total student capacity of around 250, with expectations for further growth. In the past, FMS only offered programs related to ship maintenance, but as data centers were established in Fredericia, new education programs were launched to produce data center technicians.

Jens Færgemand Mikkelsen, Dean of FMS, is taking a commemorative photo after an interview on the 2nd of last month (local time) in Fredericia, Denmark. Photo by Hyunju Lee

Jens Færgemand Mikkelsen, dean of FMS, explained, "A data center is essentially just like a ship—consider it as a vessel filled with servers," adding, "Power supply, cooling, maintenance – all these are areas that fit perfectly with marine engineering."

FMS is equipped with a data center simulation facility to train students in real-world skills. With a capacity of about 12kW, it includes a full suite of mission-critical infrastructure found in large-scale data centers: an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system, backup power, cooling, monitoring, and redundant components.

Since 2020, the "Star Project" has been underway in collaboration with Google using an educational data center. To recruit new employees working locally, Google arranged for students from across Denmark who completed an 8-week vocational training to receive 2 weeks of data center equipment training at FMS. After a total of 10 weeks of training, the hiring process is conducted immediately. Associate Professor Jakob Langkjaer of FMS explained the data center facilities installed at FMS on the 2nd of last month (local time). He said, "Google has never once given the instruction 'do it this way,'" adding, "The entire course structure was created by the educational institution itself." Reported by Hyunju Lee.

Dean Mikkelsen stated, "The training facility is designed to enable students to understand the latest data center construction and operation methods," adding, "By handling actual equipment, students can grasp key concepts such as redundancy, resilience, and operational decision-making—essential to running data centers."

Henrik Thorsen, CEO of Energy Cool, explained the growth process of the company on the 1st of last month (local time) in Fredericia, Denmark. Photo by Hyunju Lee

Since the data center arrived, local businesses have also benefited. EnergyCool, a company that has been developing cooling technologies for 17 years, is a prime example. Based on environmentally friendly cooling refrigerants, the company has developed data center cooling solutions and expanded beyond supplying to Europe to enter the North and South American markets as well.

Henrik Thorsen, CEO, said, "The data center of the future must save energy, be sustainable, and be flexible in responding to power grids," adding, "We are growing together with partners and clients worldwide, at an ever-increasing pace."

This feature has been supported by the Korea Press Foundation, funded by government advertising fees.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.