Company begins building work in Farciennes Google has started construction work on its second Belgian data center campus The company reportedly aims to invest $1 billion in the project Google will also be expanding its existing Belgian campus in Saint-Ghislain Official plans for the camps were first announced in July 2023 The three-building campus will span some 53,000 sqm (570,500 sq ft) energy firm Elia has confirmed that 200-300MW of capacity would be available on the site Previous reports suggested work on the first phase – spanning around 7,500 sqm (80,730 sq ft) – would begin last year and launch in 2025 The company was granted a permit for the Farciennes project earlier this year Conditions attached to Google’s planning permit will require on-site solar panels which the company has said will mounted to the roof 90 percent of the energy consumed on the site must be carbon-free by 2025 and this must even be 95 percent by 2030 Google will also have to opt for a more sustainable cooling system for the data centers in the future – reportedly switching from systems that use water-consuming technology to air-cooling The site will also be connected to a local district heating network The company uses the shell company Crystal Computing for much of its dealings in Belgium The existing Saint-Ghislain site was Google’s first data center in Europe The company has built five data centers at its 90-hectare Saint-Ghislain site since 2009 The company has also built a solar plant on the campus Google has said the expansion at Saint-Ghislain will include an additional 1.4MW of capacity at the company’s on-site solar farm 2022 also saw Google acquire a 36-hectare site located in Ecaussinnes in the Feluy industrial zone near La Louvière Data Centre Dynamics Ltd (DCD), 32-38 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N 8FH Email. [email protected]DCD is a subsidiary of InfraXmedia Google recently received permission from the Walloon province of Hainaut in Belgium to build three data centres The exact location is the municipality of Farciennes With the construction of the new data centre in Farciennes, Google is doubling its data centre locations in the province of Hainaut, VRT NWS reports The tech giant has already a data centre location in the municipality of Saint-Ghislain in the Walloon province since 2010 Google has invested nearly 3 billion euros uptill this point It also provides employment for more than 400 employees the future data centre location in Farciennes must meet a number of requirements by the Walloon provincial government Google must make its data centre “green” in terms of the environment and mobility the installation of solar panels must ensure that the energy consumed at the data centre site is 90 percent CO2 neutral by 2025 Google must also eventually adopt more sustainable cooling technology for its data centres those requirements will fit well with the company’s own environmental goals it announced that it had signed a new agreement with Aspiravi and Luminus in Belgium to support those parties’ onshore wind farms The company’s offices and data centres in Belgium will thus use 80 percent carbon-free energy Farciennes is the poorest municipality within the Walloon province of Hainaut Google’s arrival is of interest to the municipality There will be built three data centers on behalf of the tech giant The locations should provide work for 400 direct jobs and an equal number of indirect jobs Also read: Google makes data centres in Europe run on carbon-free energy Techzine focusses on IT professionals and business decision makers by publishing the latest IT news and background stories. The goal is to help IT professionals get acquainted with new innovative products and services, but also to offer in-depth information to help them understand products and services better. © 2025 Dolphin Publications B.V.All rights reserved. ​CategoriesCategoriesEnglishECONOMY, INNOVATIONGoogle invests 1bn euros in new Belgian data centre5 April 2024 Google is to build a new data centre in Farciennes This accounts for an investment of 1 billion euros The company will also expand an existing data centre in Saint-Ghislain Google has received a permit to build a new data centre in Farciennes one of the poorest municipalities in Wallonia the tech giant must opt for sustainable cooling systems and must ensure that 90 percent of the energy consumed is carbon-free by 2025 The new data centre should help meet the growing demand for Google's AI and cloud services Google will expand its data centre in Saint-Ghislain which has been in existence since 2010 and employs over 400 people Nearly 3 billion euros has already been invested in operations there As the company seeks to step up its carbon-free energy efforts it will upgrade its existing data centre with a photovoltaic park that will help Google achieve its goal of zero net emissions from all its operations and its value chain by 2030 this amounts to an investment of 1 billion euros It will also create jobs: at least 100 in the new data centre and an additional 100 in Saint-Ghislain Google reportedly supported an average of 2,800 jobs a year and contributed almost 3 billion euros to Belgium's GDP The Google Data Centre in Saint-Ghislain | © BELGA PHOTO LAURIE DIEFFEMBACQ Copy linkGet updates in your mailboxYour email addressSubscribeBy clicking "Subscribe" I confirm I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy rapid and high-quality information 24 hours a day from Belgium and abroad to all Belgian media not to mention entertainment and lifestyle our journalists and press photographers produce hundreds of photos and news stories Since the end of March 2022 English has been added as a language businesses and various organisations that need reliable information Belga News Agency also offers a comprehensive range of corporate services to meet all their communication needs www.belganewsagency.eu Google has filed to build a new data center campus in Belgium the search and cloud company is planning to develop three facilities at the Ecopôle business park in Wallonia A new milestone has been reached: the permit application has just been submitted to the Municipal Administration!” Bayet said last week The campus will span some 53,000 sqm (570,500 sq ft) Construction will start at the end of the year and will open in 2025 The first phase will span around 7,500 sqm (80,730 sq ft) Bayet said the campus would include photovoltaic panels and heat recovery in order to power an urban heat network Google acquired 53 hectares of land in the Ecopôle eco-business park located across the municipalities of Farciennes Belgium’s Saint Ghislain was the site of Google’s first data center in Europe The company has built five data centers at its 90-hectare Saint-Ghislain site since 2009 as well as a solar plant Last year also saw Google acquire a 36-hectare site located in Ecaussinnes Data Centre Dynamics Ltd (DCD), 32-38 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N 8FH Email. [email protected]DCD is a subsidiary of InfraXmedia