Colt: Paris Villebon Campus

Colt Data Centre Services (Colt DCS) is developing this campus in the Courtaboeuf business park in Villebon-sur-Yvette (Essonne), about 16 km southwest of Paris, inside the Paris-Saclay Operation of National Interest. Colt markets it as its Paris Villebon site, home to Colt Paris 2, 3 and 4.

Land. The roughly 12.5-acre site joins two parcels on Avenue du Québec. Parcel AP 8 (20 Avenue du Québec, about 23,700 m²) held an equipment warehouse that closed in 2021; Colt cleared it for Paris 2. Parcel AP 34 (18 bis Avenue du Québec, about 25,000 m²) holds the Papillon (Butterfly) office building once used by Microsoft France. Colt plans to demolish that building for the later phases. The developer entity is COLT DCS Developments France.

Power. The campus connects directly to RTE's 225 kV grid. A double underground link of about 1.4 km taps the Villejust–Villeras and Moulineaux–Villejust overhead lines southeast of the site and feeds an on-site substation. Paris 2's backup plant has 27 diesel generators, 12 buried 100 m³ fuel tanks (about 48 hours of autonomy) and urea-based NOx abatement.

Design. Colt designs the buildings for cloud and AI loads above 100 kW per rack. They use hybrid air and liquid-to-chip cooling with zero water waste, run on 100% renewable power and carry about 1,975 m² of rooftop solar. Waste heat warms the offices and is offered to a planned Paris-Saclay district heating network.

Milestones. The Île-de-France environmental authority (MRAe) reviewed Paris 2 in March 2023. The building permit and environmental authorization went to public inquiry in June–July 2024. Colt broke ground on Paris 2 in May 2025, with Equans Data Centers as general contractor. This was the first step of Colt's €2.3 billion French program. A hyperscale anchor tenant has fully let Paris 2.