Google Farciennes data center, Farciennes, Wallonia

Google is building its second Belgian data center campus at the Ecopôle business park in Farciennes, in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Construction began in April 2024 on a campus of three buildings covering about 53,000 square meters on 53 hectares, part of a €1 billion investment that also expands Google's existing campus at Saint-Ghislain. The first stone was laid on April 5, 2024, with Mayor Hugues Bayet, Secretary of State Thomas Dermine and Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten, according to the town, which developed the project with the intermunicipal agency Igretec.

Local press first reported Google's interest in Farciennes in 2019, and the company bought the land that year; plans were officially announced in July 2023, and grid operator Elia said capacity in the 200-to-300-megawatt range would be available at the site. The permit requires rooftop solar panels, 90 percent carbon-free energy on site by 2025 and 95 percent by 2030, a switch from water-based to air cooling, and a connection to a local district heating network. DCmag reported that the permit also called for 350,000 cubic meters of fill to be moved by waterway, and for shared bike and scooter stations at the Farciennes and Aiseau-Presles train stations. Google does much of its business in Belgium through the company Crystal Computing.

"Once this new data centre is operational, we are thinking of about 100 permanent jobs," Google's Michiel Sallaets said, naming server technicians as well as catering, maintenance and security staff. Farciennes is Wallonia's poorest municipality, The Brussels Times noted. The Ecopôle, spread over more than 150 hectares along the Basse-Sambre road on former heavy-industry land, has a bypass road so that heavy trucks no longer cross the town center, according to the municipality.

In March 2026, about a hundred delegates of the socialist union FGTB staged a protest at the construction site, asking to meet the posted workers employed there and check that labor laws were respected, but their request was refused, La DH reported. Two socialist members of the European Parliament, Estelle Ceulemans and Johan Danielsson, took part. When work began in April 2024, The Brussels Times reported that construction of the new campus "will take several years," alongside the expansion at Saint-Ghislain.