Bissen municipality flooded with complaints against Google data centre

The vast majority of the complaints came from the two local citizen initiatives "Un der Atert" and "Pro Bissen." The initiatives criticised the lack of details regarding the maximal height of the new building and the cooling system to name but a few.

Another cause for concern was the centre's water and energy consumption. Opponents also questioned the value and use of the centre for Luxembourg more generally. They argued that there was no real added value.

Bissen's administration will have three months to vote for or against the development plan. Mayor David Viaggi hopes that the ministers Claude Turmes, Taina Bofferding and Etienne Schneider  (Minister for Energy, Minister for Home Affairs, and Minister of the Economy) will clarify these issues and pledge their support.

In a nutshell, the municipality must find out to what extent they will truly benefit from the new centre if they were to vote in favour of it.

The parliamentary commission for economics will debate the prospective data centre on Thursday.

Discussions will mainly revolve around the so-called "memorandum of understanding" that was signed by Google, the government, and the municipality of Bissen behind closed doors when the project was first launched.