Google buys land in La Louvière: probably for data center

Google announces that it has bought land in the industrial estate of Feluy near La Louvière, in the province of Hainaut. Remarkably, it does not say why, but there is a good chance that it concerns space for the construction of a new data center.

Belgian soil

The land is 36 acres. Google says it has no concrete plans yet, which is quite remarkable for such a purchase, but it indicates to DataNews that it is a potential data center. In any case, in the coming period, Google will put money into building the basic infrastructure of this mysterious project. Google says that the destination of the piece of land is related to the demand for Google cloud services in Belgium. There are currently five Google data centers in Belgium. They have been built since 2005 and are all located in the same place in Saint-Ghislain.

Frederic Descams, who is responsible for Google’s data centers in Belgium, tells DataNews: “When the opportunities arise, we should take them and when the time comes to expand, we can continue to do that in Belgium. infrastructure evolves quickly. If the next change in cloud development comes, you have to be ready. It takes a lot of time to develop a location, but if you can prepare there already and there is a first building, you can scale it much faster .”

Google data centers

This is not the first time that Google has bought land in Belgium this year that has not yet been used for a specific purpose: a Google plot can also be found in Farciennes near Charleroi. In the meantime, it is still working hard on the fifth data center in Saint-Ghislain, which is yet to open this year. The company writes that Belgium is an important part of Google’s European infrastructure. Since 2007, almost 3 billion euros have been invested in infrastructure for data centers in Belgium. Something that also creates many jobs in Belgium: an average of 2,800 local jobs per year since 2007 and 2020, through Google’s data centers. It would contribute 2.7 billion euros to the Belgian GNP.

Alexander De Croo, Prime Minister of Belgium, welcomes the investment: “This new investment is great news. It confirms our position as a digital pioneer. Belgium has played a leading role in Europe for years when it comes to developing the digital economy. Our central position, our know-how and our talents are all assets for companies like Google, but also for all innovative startups that are started up every day in our country. We should be proud of it and continue to invest in our ecosystem to grow it. Never has digital innovation been more important than in the post-covid era. International events show us every day how crucial it is for Belgium and for Europe to have its own infrastructure and its own economic and technological levers.”

Sustainability

With the advent of data centers, the question always arises: is it sustainable? Every year from 2017, Google matched its electricity consumption with 100% renewable energy for its global operations, including data centers and offices. In 2017, a new solar installation was installed at the Belgian data center site, generating 2.8 megawatts of clean, renewable energy annually. In 2019, Google purchased 92 megawatts of offshore wind energy in Belgium. Google wants to work on carbon-free energy only within the same grid by 2030.