Google's Bissen data centre draws objections over water and power as it advances

A decade after Google first eyed a patch of farmland in central Luxembourg, its planned €1 billion data centre at Bissen has taken a decisive step forward — and run into a wall of local objections that go to the heart of the country's climate and land-use commitments.

In January 2026 the Bissen town council approved the special development plan (PAP) that frames how the site can be built, backing it by 10 votes to one. Two months later, on 27 March, the public consultation on the project's environmental impact assessment closed, drawing roughly 170 remarks. Many were hostile. Residents, the environmental NGO Mouvement écologique and some local politicians argue that a single power- and water-hungry facility owned by one of the world's largest companies is being waved through in a country the size of a mid-sized city.

A project a decade in the making

Google's interest in Bissen surfaced around 2017, when it announced a roughly €1 billion investment that would rank among the largest developments of any kind in Luxembourg — and make it the country's single biggest consumer of electricity. In 2019, some 33.7 hectares of farmland were reclassified from agricultural to industrial use, and the municipal council gave an initial green light in 2020. Ministry approvals followed, yet construction never began; the project stalled for years amid Google's own hesitation and mounting local opposition.

The January vote revived it. Under the agreement, Google is to fund about €13.5 million of infrastructure — road access and network connections — with further money set aside for an agricultural access path. Crucially, a building permit and a separate water-management permit are still outstanding, and Google has announced no start date. As Bissen mayor David Viaggi put it after the vote, the council had set the framework but Google still needed to clarify what it would actually build.

The sustainability objections

The loudest concerns are about water and power. Under the project's original water-cooling design — which envisaged drawing from the Alzette river because the nearby Attert runs too low in summer — Mouvement écologique estimated the plant could require the equivalent of 10 to 15 percent of Luxembourg's current water consumption, far beyond available capacity. Industry reporting put the figure at up to around 10 percent. On electricity, estimates cited by campaigners and specialist outlets range from roughly 12 to 15 percent of national consumption, which the NGO says would exceed the combined electricity use of every household in the country.

Mouvement écologique, which filed a 30-page objection backed by a legal opinion, also targets the design's efficiency. It says the Bissen plant implies a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of about 1.3 — worse than the roughly 1.09 Google reports across its global fleet — and warns that the site would generate on the order of 1,000 GWh of waste heat a year, enough to warm tens of thousands of homes, without any guarantee it will be reused. Around 12 hectares of land would be sealed, and the NGO dismisses on-site solar as covering a fraction of a percent of demand.

People were interested at first. But now, they're starting to increasingly realize that the data center will represent few jobs, barely any taxes, no scientific contribution - basically, only risks.

That verdict came from Daniel Hientgen, president of the citizens' group Pro Bissen, who — like other critics — questions whether roughly 100 jobs and modest tax receipts justify the strain on water, grid and land. Campaigners have signalled they will contest the water-management permit when it comes.

Google and the government push back

Google frames the timeline as a matter of demand, not doubt. Anthony Cirot, vice-president for Google Cloud in EMEA South, said the company would build when it needed the capacity — increasingly tied to artificial intelligence — while stressing its environmental pledges.

"The day we need it, we'll be ready. There's no announcement saying that a data centre will be built in Bissen on such and such a day," Cirot said, pointing to Google's commitment to offset its consumption with renewable energy since 2017 and a target of net-zero-emissions data centres by 2030.

The government is firmly behind the project. Economy Minister Lex Delles has said talks with Google intensified around the turn of 2026 and that he is "confident" of a breakthrough, arguing that Luxembourg should not "miss the opportunity of [big] data." His predecessor Franz Fayot had earlier insisted the entire government supported the plant as a signal that the country could still land large-scale investment. Critics counter that revised technical figures — including reduced water draw — have yet to be fully published, leaving the public to judge the project on incomplete information.

A European stress test

Bissen is a small stage for a continent-wide problem. The International Energy Agency estimates that global data-centre electricity use, about 415 TWh in 2024 — roughly 1.5 percent of world demand — will roughly double to around 945 TWh by 2030, or just under 3 percent, with AI-optimised servers accounting for almost half of the increase. In advanced economies, the agency says, data centres are on course to drive a large share of all electricity-demand growth this decade, concentrating strain on local grids.

That is the crux in Luxembourg: a facility that would be trivial for a large economy to absorb looms disproportionately large in a country of some 670,000 people with limited water and a tight power system. Whether Google ultimately breaks ground — and on what terms — will show how far Europe's climate and land-use promises bend under the weight of the AI build-out.