Data centers in Wallonia: 2 projects mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Google is the big data center builder in Wallonia, with two campuses in Hainaut. At the Ecopôle near Charleroi, its first building, in Farciennes, is finished and cooled by air; a second, on the Aiseau-Presles side, is not yet built. In August 2026 the regional planning minister, François Desquesnes, refused Google's request to cool that second building with water from the Sambre river, after a resident appealed. Google can return to air cooling or challenge the refusal at the Council of State.

Google wanted to pump 600 cubic meters an hour from the Sambre and return only a quarter of it, L'Avenir reported; that summer the region had already released 28,000 cubic meters from the Eau d'Heure lakes to keep the river and canal navigable. "The volumes the company plans to pump from the Sambre seem significantly large to me," Desquesnes told RTBF. Residents welcomed the refusal. Dominique Grenier, mayor of Aiseau-Presles, said air cooling was hardly workable for a building meant for AI and suggested Google collect rainwater on the large, flood-prone site.

Google's older campus, its first in Europe, is at Saint-Ghislain; in 2023 Google disclosed that it used just over 1 million cubic meters of water a year. It plans €5 billion of AI investment in Belgium through 2027, centered on expanding Saint-Ghislain, and has applied to build two more buildings there, according to the environmental federation Canopea, which estimates them at 200 to 450 megawatts of power and wants a pause on such permits. Anne More, 68, who lives 200 meters away, told Médor: "Google builds, expands, and we have barely been consulted."

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.