Kevlinx begins construction of a colocation data center in Neder-Over-Heembeek. The project will be built on a 2.5 hectare site on citydev.brussels’ Galilei site.

After an initial contact with citydev.brussels in 2017, data center specialist Kevlinx received a suitable 2.5 hectare plot of land on which to build a colocation data center. This is the last available plot of land on the Galilei site in Neder-Over-Heembeek.

According to Kevlinx, the Brussels market offers many advantages. “The region has a fine-meshed fiber optic network. There you will find many international telecommunications companies, large multinational companies, NATO and European institutions. The ideal location for a data center.”

According to the manufacturer, the data center market in the Brussels region and the Flemish Rand is far from saturated. Today, Belgian data centers have a capacity of around 30 megawatts (excluding existing telecommunications operators such as the Proximus data center in Evere). Compared to the capacity in other European cities such as London (1,038 MW), Frankfurt (839 MW), Amsterdam (569 MW) and Paris (475 MW), there is still great potential for growth.

100% renewable energy by 2030

The various permits for the construction of the data center have now been received. Preparatory construction work has also begun. The construction of the new data center will take place in stages. Initially, 32 MW of IT capacity will be built. This will be ready for operation in October 2025 and can be expanded in the long term.

The new infrastructure offers space for 1-25 kW per rack, optionally expandable to 100 kW per rack with water cooling. There are four fiber optic inputs. The data center is connected to the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) node. The location also offers separate and shared office spaces, meeting rooms and secure logistics zones.

The goal is to use 100% renewable energy by 2030. The data center has a PUE of 1.2. The data center project will ultimately create around 150 new jobs. This number could increase with the planned expansions.

Third parties can accommodate their servers and other IT equipment in the colocation data center. The servers are connected to various telecommunications providers. The data center’s various customers are also connected, including various cloud providers.

Brussels (BRU01) is just the first step. Kevlinx wants to build several data centers in Europe in the future. The company has not yet announced any concrete plans or timelines.