Ving's gigantic data center layout - in the middle of the Tarjei Vesaas land - NRK Vestfold and Telemark

– I can also flatten my cabin, says Geir Tombre who owns a cabin close to the plot where the data center comes from.

Many people in the community also believe that the center will destroy the community. Both because of the noise, but also because of its towering size in a rural cultural scene.

“It’s very quiet here now, which is good for our quality of life,” says Seif Veronica Grande.

I looked desperately across the plot at Vinny’s. There are big plans for Vesaastippen.

Vinje municipality has sent the plans for a 20-meter-high data center for consultation.

The center covers an area of 15,000 square meters. It is the size of more than two football fields.

The location of the center led a state official at Vestfold and Telemark to put the project under the microscope.

Sound the alarm on Facebook

A stone’s throw from the planned construction site, author Tarjei Vesaas grew up. On the same farm, Sigrid Vesa’s attempt also spent large parts of her life.

When she saw the 3D model of the building, she thought:

– Is this nonsense!?

Vesaas was forced to notify people in the village on Facebook, when it realized the scale of this new data center.

– I’m an architect and I’m good at reading area plans and the like, but I don’t think everyone else in the village is used to it, Vesas.

The best site

Vesaas initially had nothing against Vinje’s data center, but thought it would be too big and the location would be wrong. Also taking into account that the data center will appear near the farm where one of Norway’s most famous authors grew up.

“Think of everyone who climbs into the park in connection with the stories of author Tarjei Vesaas, you also have to go through the perpetual giant,” says Vesaas Architect.

Mayor Vinje does not agree that the data center will be too large, and points out that it is a small one that can be seen in relation to other data centers.

The reason for the municipality’s desire to build the data center in Vesaas-garden is that there is a transformer station next to the building site. Then one can easily pull the current to the data center.

The data center cannot be located elsewhere if we want to have the unique solution, says Klevin.

I will look at the plans

Data center plans are now ready for consultation and Kleven doesn’t just receive input from laypeople. He also joined the state official.

In a letter, the state official wrote that they believed the method used to assess the natural value of the scheme was wrong, and that the plot of land might be part of a natural area of national interest.

So the state official asks the municipality in a letter to evaluate the location of the data center.

– We understand that the site was chosen on the basis of proximity to the Vinje power plant and the possibility of extracting cooling water from the transmission tunnel, but is it necessary that the data center be located exactly on the rocky end to take advantage of these possibilities?

Asplan Viak has evaluated the site’s normal values. They used a method from environmental authorities that they believe is healthier because the area is the result of inverting loads of rock and soil mass from energy development in the 1960s.

There has been overlap in the use of NEA’s normal value valuation methods, but we believe that the old method provides a better valuation in this case. The reason is that the area in question is 100 percent man-made, says nature surveyor Ron Solvang at Asplan Viac.