LCL data center Company has acquired ENGIE Solution’s data center in Gembloux. By doing so, the data center now becomes LCL’s first data center in Wallonia, Belgium. The acquisition of ENGIE Solutions’ data center in Gembloux includes the employees and the center’s solar park responsible for providing energy for the facility.
Furthermore, the acquisition will also see LCL’s data centers in Belgium become five after it acquired Atos data center in Huizingen, Belgium, in April 2020. CEO of LCL, Laurens van Reijen, said that the Company is focusing on the opening of the Belgian market. He further noted that it is increasing its presence in the market with the Company’s fifth data center in the country.
LCL strengthens its growth with this second acquisition
The data center company LCL has acquired ENGIE Solutions’ data center in Gembloux, through the acquisition of Cofely Data Solutions SA. LCL Wallonia One, the new name of the data center, thus becomes LCL’s first data center in Wallonia. LCL is taking over the ENGIE Solutions data center along with its employees. This site’s solar park, which provides energy for it, is also included in the acquisition. With this operation, LCL continues to extend its activities. Specifically, this is the fifth LCL data center on the Belgian market and the company’s second acquisition – following that of the Atos data center in Huizingen in April 2020. The value of this acquisition has not been disclosed.
LCL, the data centers specialist, is taking over the ENGIE Solutions data center on the Belgian market. It’s located in Gembloux, in Namur province, and is the first LCL data center in Wallonia. This data center is at the leading edge of technology and has an excellent reputation. Moreover, it’s ideally situated, and has ample space available in the vicinity for future expansion.
“At LCL, we are focusing strongly on the Belgian market’s digital opening,” said Laurens van Reijen, CEO of LCL. “With this fifth data center, we are increasing our presence on the market. Gembloux is located in the heart of the Walloon economy. As a result, LCL Wallonia One offers excellent connection possibilities for the business sites and parks throughout Wallonia. Thanks to our other strategic sites located in the four corners of the Brussels and Antwerp peripheries, we can ensure that any company will have close links with other regions in our country.”
The four employees under a fixed contract at Cofely Data Solutions will be joining the LCL team. They remain attached to LCL Wallonia One, under the leadership of their current manager Nicolas Coppée. ENGIE’s IT infrastructure is, and will stay, based in this data center. Nothing will change for the various clients who are hosted there.
“We warmly welcome our four new colleagues and their support will be effectively integrated,” added Laurens van Reijen. “LCL is still strongly driven by service and quality. We intend not only to build synergies between our five data centers, but also to introduce some innovations. Our current team of 37 employees is specialised in data center services. So this is a win-win-win operation: for the customers of data centers, for ENGIE Solutions, and for LCL,” underlines Laurens van Reijen.
A data center with a solar park The LCL Wallonia One site also features a solar park, which was built to provide power for the data center. The park includes some 2,000 photovoltaic panels, generating around 1 MW of electricity. Furthermore, the data center has a low Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.25. This in line with LCL’s general objectives for sustainability and efficiency in particular. LCL is committed to making all its data centers carbon-neutral by 2030. At European level, the data centers company has created the ‘Climate Neutral Data Center Pact’ with 24 companies and 17 associations. This pact is in line with the European Green Deal.
An extended cooperation agreement Besides this acquisition, LCL and ENGIE Solutions have also concluded a collaboration agreement, thus enabling ENGIE Solutions to build new data centers for LCL. There are also plans for ENGIE Solutions to advise LCL on energy efficiency, given ENGIE’s experience in such projects.
