A couple living next to Microsoft’s planned datacenter at Lunde in Varde Municipality say months of uncertainty have cost them sleep, health and trust in local authorities.
Charlotte Pedersen and her husband Heine Pedersen described the strain in an interview with JydskeVestkysten, published August 16. Microsoft has conditionally bought the neighboring property, with land starting less than 25 meters from their farmhouse.
The couple first heard about the plans in December 2025 and have since lived with uncertainty. Charlotte Pedersen says she wakes at two in the morning and writes letters to Microsoft, politicians and newspapers. She works 13.5 hours a week in a fleksjob and says stress has affected her memory.
According to the newspaper, the immediate trigger for her latest letter to the editor was a remark by Mayor Sarah Andersen (V). At a meeting with the dialogue groups, the mayor compared the neighbors’ concerns to her own experience of living near a dog kennel. Andersen later wrote that she agreed the two things cannot be compared, and that her point was that local areas change.
Preben Friis-Hauge (V), chair of plan and development in Varde Municipality, rejects the description of a closed process. In a written reply he lists two public meetings, a local consultant and a facilitated dialogue group. The mayor says the municipality does its best to inform residents, but that much remains unclear.
Varde Kommune states that it received Microsoft’s applications on December 11, 2025, and began processing them in early 2026. The municipality says Microsoft has bought about 79 hectares at Kastkærvej, and that the city council decided on June 24, 2026 to start local planning work.
The couple say the buildings can reach 32 meters, with chimneys up to 40 meters. They have been invited to see an existing datacenter in Høje-Taastrup, which they say covers around eight hectares, a tenth of the neighboring site. Charlotte Pedersen has requested documents from Energinet and describes pages with heavy redactions citing trade secrets.
They want figures on electricity consumption and the planned backup power plant, and information about noise, light and generator emissions. Heine Pedersen, who was born on the farm and worked 36 years at Vestas, notes that national compensation rules exist for renewable energy plants but not yet for datacenters. Both are close to 59 and fear losing the value of their home.
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Friis-Hauge says noise, light and emissions will be covered in a parallel environmental assessment, and that a municipality has no legal basis to demand compensation as a condition. He adds that the council will ask the responsible ministers for national rules on neighbor compensation for large-scale projects in open countryside. Computerworld reported that the council asked Microsoft to present a compensation plan for neighbors by the end of September 2026.
Six datacenter projects are being worked on in Varde Municipality, five of them published. Microsoft Danmark has applied for two sites in rural zones, at Tinghøj covering 151 hectares and at Lunde covering 78 hectares.
