In 2007, we announced that we would invest €250 million in building an energy-efficient data center near the towns of St. Ghislain and Mons, in Belgium.

The facility, which became fully operational in 2010, was the first Google data center worldwide to run entirely without refrigeration, using instead an advanced evaporative cooling system that draws grey water from a nearby industrial canal. This helps keep our computers running at their highest efficiency and reduces overall energy use.

In 2013, we announced an additional investment of €300 million to build a second phase of our energy-efficient data center and meet growing European and global demand for our services. This expansion was completed in 2015.

In February 2018, two exciting developments occurred with news of a €250 million data center expansion and the unveiling of a new solar plant on the data center site following a €3 million investment. In June 2019, we announced a further investment of €600 million to build a fourth data center on the campus.

In November 2021, Google announced a commitment to invest more than €500 million to expand our existing data center site in St. Ghislain, our fifth data center on the campus. We also announced we acquired land in Ecopôle near Charleroi for a potential future data center.

This brings Google’s total data center investment in St. Ghislain to nearly €3 billion.

We’re proud to call St. Ghislain home and honored to be part of the local community.