Overview
Hetzner Online GmbH is a German hosting and cloud provider founded in 1997, headquartered in Gunzenhausen, Bavaria. It operates large data center parks and offers dedicated servers, cloud compute, and colocation to customers worldwide.
Like all large-scale hosting operators, Hetzner's core operating cost and environmental footprint is dominated by two things: powering the servers, and cooling them. The company has publicly emphasized energy efficiency and the use of green electricity as part of its identity.
Green power: what Hetzner confirms
Hetzner publicly states that its data centers run on green electricity (electricity sourced from renewable generation such as hydro and other renewables). This is one of the few power-related facts the company communicates clearly and consistently in its own materials.
- Hetzner emphasizes energy-efficient hardware and cooling design.
- Its German facilities are described as being supplied with green/renewable electricity.
- Efficiency (low PUE — Power Usage Effectiveness) is a stated goal, though Hetzner does not always publish a single verified PUE figure per site.
PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) measures total facility energy divided by energy delivered to IT equipment. A value near 1.0 is ideal; the industry average has historically been well above that.
Where Hetzner's data centers are
Hetzner's largest and best-known facilities are in Germany, with additional locations in Finland and, more recently, the United States and Singapore. Its major data center parks include:
| Location | Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Falkenstein / Vogtland | Germany | One of Hetzner's largest data center parks; multiple buildings. |
| Nuremberg | Germany | Major data center park and cloud region. |
| Helsinki (Tuusula) | Finland | Cloud + dedicated servers; cool climate aids cooling efficiency. |
| Ashburn, Virginia | USA | US cloud region. |
| Hillsboro, Oregon | USA | US cloud region. |
| Singapore | Singapore | Cloud region (tropical climate raises cooling demand). |
Facility counts and building layouts change over time as Hetzner expands. Treat the list as the well-known core, not an exhaustive real-time inventory.
Power per square foot — the honest answer
You asked which Hetzner facilities use the most power per square foot worldwide. Here's the truthful situation:
Hetzner does not publish verified power-density figures per facility. There is no official public dataset stating watts/W per square foot (or per square meter) for Falkenstein vs. Nuremberg vs. Helsinki vs. the US sites. Any exact number claimed online should be treated with suspicion unless it cites Hetzner directly.
What we can reason about — as general context, not confirmed Hetzner numbers — is what tends to drive power density in data centers:
- Rack density: Facilities packed with modern high-core CPUs and GPUs draw more power per unit of floor area.
- Climate: Warmer locations (e.g., Singapore) generally need more cooling energy per IT watt, which can raise total facility power draw relative to floor space.
- Cool-climate advantage: Finland's cold climate allows extensive free-air/economizer cooling, which typically lowers the cooling share of total power.
- Age and design: Newer buildings are often engineered for higher density and better efficiency than older ones.
The numbers we actually have
Because Hetzner keeps most figures internal, this section separates confirmed facts from context so nothing misleads you.
Confirmed by Hetzner
Not publicly disclosed
- Total company-wide megawatt (MW) consumption.
- Per-facility annual electricity use (GWh).
- Verified watts-per-square-foot or per-square-meter density.
- Official per-site PUE values.
Illustrative cooling-demand comparison
The bars below express only the relative expectation of cooling energy demand driven by climate, based on general data-center engineering — they are not measured Hetzner values.
Singapore hot / humid
Ashburn / Hillsboro, US temperate
Germany (Falkenstein / Nuremberg) temperate
Helsinki, Finland cold
Higher bar = higher expected cooling energy needed per unit of IT load, purely due to ambient climate. Actual efficiency also depends on building design and equipment.
Key takeaways
- Hetzner's power story is centered on green electricity and efficiency, which the company confirms.
- Its biggest facilities — and therefore its largest absolute power draw — are the German parks at Falkenstein and Nuremberg.
- There is no official public "power per square foot" ranking for Hetzner. Anyone stating one precisely is likely guessing.
- By climate logic, a hot-climate site like Singapore would face the highest cooling demand per area, while Finland benefits from natural cooling.
Sources & how to verify
To get authoritative figures, go to primary sources rather than aggregator estimates:
- Hetzner's official website and its statements on green electricity and data center locations.
- Hetzner's status pages and location/region documentation for its cloud.
- Independent data-center industry reporting for general PUE and density benchmarks (context only).
This page intentionally avoids fabricating megawatt totals or per-square-foot numbers that Hetzner has not published.