Consultation opens on projects in Paris suburbs.
Two new data center projects in the suburbs of French capital Paris have been put out for consultation.
Residents in the department of Val-de-Marne, located south of Paris, are currently having their say on a plan from Segro to build a data center at the Petits Carreaux business park near Bonneuil-sur-Marne, and a scheme from Icade which would see a hyperscale facility constructed at its Paris-Orly Business Park in Rungis.
Segro’s Paris data center plan
Segro, which announced plans to grow its data center business last year, wants to construct a 13,800 sqm (148,541 sq ft) data center complex at the 15-hectare Petits Carreaux business park, which is currently home to more than 150 companies.The site would have IT capacity of 70MW, and draw power from the main French grid. As well as data halls, the development would house an electrical substation and a backup power system comprising 24 generators running on HVO, a vegetable oil-based biofuel.
Waste heat from the site would be collected and could be used in district heating systems located in Bonneuil or nearby Sucy.
It is estimated that the data center will create up to 70 full-time jobs. The consultation period runs until June 10.
Hyperscale data center near Paris Orly Airport
Meanwhile, in nearby Rungis, another developer, Icade, plans to spend €280 million ($318m) building a new hyperscale data center.
The project would be located at Icade’s Paris Orly-Rungis business park, and span some 65,000 sqm (699,654 sq ft) and offer an eventual 130MW. It is proposing to build a heat recovery system, with waste heat to be sent to the Rungis International Market, Paris’s largest wholesale market for food and agricultural products.
According to an investor presentation from earlier this year, Icade hopes to start work on the data center in 2028, with a view to it coming online by 2029/30.
A French company, Icade specializes in commercial and residential developments, but is taking a growing interest in data centers.
The company currently has five operational data centers at another of its sites in Paris, the Portes de Paris Business Park. These have a combined capacity of 18MW and are leased to Digital Reality, Equinix, and Edvance, an EDF company. A sixth data center is currently in the works, which will be leased to Equinix and provide an additional 10MW.
In its investor presentation, Icade said it intends to move beyond providing powered shells to customers, and could pursue a joint venture with a data center operator. It may also look at becoming an operator itself by acquiring an existing data center business.
Consultation on the Rungis plan runs until July 3.
Val-de-Marne’s data center expansion
The projects join another data center development proposed for Val-de-Marne. Goodman Group is hoping to convert the site of the former Signify logistics center in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges into two data centers. The site has been vacant since 2022.
Announced last year, each of the buildings would feature 12 data halls. This scheme was granted approval last year.
France has doubled down on data center investment since hosting an international AI summit in February, which saw a host of multi-billion dollar investments in AI infrastructure announced.
These included a commitment from Brookfield to spend €20 billion ($20.7bn) on AI data centers in France over the next five years, as well as an agreement between France and the United Arab Emirates to work together on a project that could be worth up to €50 billion ($51.6bn) and include the construction of a 1GW data center.
Another company, G42, said it would work with DataOne to establish an AI data center - powered by AMD hardware - in France.
