Google: Google submits plans for a three-building data center facility in Belgium

Initially announced by the mayor of Farciennes, Hugues Bayet, the search and cloud company intends to construct three facilities in the Ecopôle business park in Wallonia. The campus will encompass 570,500 square feet. The project will begin construction by the end of the year and be completed in 2025. The initial phase will encompass approximately 80,730 square feet. Bayet stated that the campus would have photovoltaic panels and heat recovery to fuel an urban heat network. 

In 2019, Google purchased 53 hectares of land in the Ecopôle eco-business park, located in the municipalities of Farciennes, Aiseau-Presles, and Sambreville. According to earlier reports, the energy company Elia has affirmed that 200-300MW of capacity would be available at the site.

The first Google data center in Europe was located in Saint Ghislain, Belgium. Since 2009, the company has erected five data centers and a solar plant on its 90-hectare Saint-Ghislain site. The majority of the company's business ties in Belgium are conducted through Crystal Computing.

Google also acquired a 36-hectare site in Ecaussinnes, Hainaut, in the Feluy industrial zone near La Louvière, in the previous year.