PreussenElektra, the E.ON subsidiary responsible for decommissioning German nuclear plants, has partnered with Nvidia to assess whether its former nuclear sites could host AI data centres. The companies said they will examine the existing energy and site infrastructure and available land against the technical and operational requirements of high performance AI data centres, then decide which sites warrant more detailed consideration.
PreussenElektra is currently responsible for eight former nuclear sites. Germany has no operational nuclear plants, having shut its last ones in April 2023, and approximately 30 former plants are being dismantled across the country. The companies have not said how data centres on the sites would be powered.
Guido Knott, chairman of the PreussenElektra management board, framed the work as responsible reuse of industrial sites with new economic opportunities for their regions. Markus Hacker, a senior regional director at Nvidia, said AI factories require power, land and high capacity infrastructure, and that former industrial sites could provide a strong foundation.
The assessment is explicitly open ended and is described by the companies as the first step in an evaluation process. No specific investment or site decisions have been made, so this is an option being created, not capacity being built. Its value is in the shortlist it may produce: sites with high capacity grid connections already in place are scarce in Germany, and a credible route to them is what European AI projects most often lack.