Google has bought more than 50 hectares of land in Belgium, potentially for a new data center campus.
L’Echo and La Nouvelle Gazette are both reporting that the search giant has acquired more than 50 hectares in the Wallonia region of Belgium for data center and office development.
Belgium’s Saint Ghislain was Google’s first data center in Europe. The company has built five data centers at its 90-hectare Saint-Ghislain site since 2009, with the fifth due to be be completed in 2022. The company has also built a solar plant on the campus.
Google reportedly signed an agreement with the economic development inter-municipal company Igretec for the acquisition of a plot of approximately 53 hectares in the Ecopôle eco-business park, located across the municipalities of Farciennes, Aiseau-Presles, and Sambreville and on the banks of the River Sambre. L’Echo reports that energy firm Elia has confirmed that 200-300MW of capacity would be available on the site.
Local press reported in 2019 that Google was considering a data center in Farciennes near Charleroi, but seemed to stick with expanding the Saint Ghislain campus until now.
Google has been expanding in Europe throughout 2021. This year has seen the company launch a new cloud region in Poland and announce plans for a new region in East Germany and an expansion to its Frankfurt footprint.
In Denmark, Google recently acquired 120,000 sqm (1.29 million sq ft) of land next to its existing Taulov data center in the Fredericia municipality. It also acquired a 12-hectare plot in the Netherlands in the province of Groningen in July; though the company hasn’t confirmed its plans to build a data center on the site yet. The company was also granted planning permission for a facility in Horndal, Sweden, in June.
The company is still awaiting full planning permission for its long-planned Luxembourg facility in Bissen.