Recently, the prefect of Seine-et-Marne approved the construction of a giant data center—the largest in Europe—in a small municipality. Opponents have gathered around a coalition to protest the project, and a petition has been launched. What should be known about this project? Why do some people oppose it?
The future largest data center in Europe
As everyone knows, the development of artificial intelligence is driving a proliferation of data centers. Yet, it turns out that some projects take on enormous proportions, generating, among other things, tensions around water and electricity consumption. This has notably been the case in New York State in July 2026, when authorities froze the issuance of new environmental permits for facilities over 50 megawatts (MW).
As France 3 Régions explains in an article dated August 27, 2026, a fairly similar affair is shaking a small Île-de-France commune near Melun, more precisely Fouju (population 650) within the Brie des Rivières et Châteaux intercommunal structure. The department prefect recently authorized the construction of 11 data center buildings as part of the Campus IA project. It is possible to consider this future installation as a giant data center, and for good reason: it is expected to become the largest data center in Europe.
The works are set to begin in September 2026, the first phase (through to the end of 2029) corresponding to the installation of the high-voltage electrical substation and the first four data center buildings. If the initial activities at the site are scheduled to start in 2028, this “Campus IA” will undergo a progressive expansion until its completion in 2038.
An opposition denouncing a leap forward in technology
Note that this is a colossal project, born from a global investment of 50 billion euros supported by an international consortium bringing together the Emirati fund MGX, the American giant Nvidia, the French unicorn Mistral AI, and the bank Bpifrance. Planned to span 90 hectares, or the equivalent of 126 football fields, the project quickly found its opponents. Indeed, locals, farmers, and environmental movements have rallied around a group called Stop Campus IA. This coalition has also launched a petition on the GreenVoice platform, which already gathered 52,000 signatures toward a target of 75,000.
“This project symbolises a leap forward into a world ever more dependent on artificial intelligence: a world where the needs of multinationals take precedence over living territories, agriculture, common resources and quality of life.”, reads the petition description.
A scale with few equivalents worldwide
In concrete terms, the complaints revolve around several points. First, opponents denounce that the project will concrete over fertile agricultural lands in the Bordes ZAC. They also pointed to the possible emergence of a heat island near the site. This could lead to a local temperature increase of almost 2°C, affecting the Melun urban area. There are also concerns about leaks of refrigerant fluids—containing PFAS—and about the massive water use for cooling the installation.
Finally, the other major area of discord concerns the targeted power of the installation, namely 1.4 gigawatts (GW), equivalent to the output of a nuclear reactor. This figure clearly contrasts with the capacities of today’s very large data centers, whose consumption ranges between 20 and 50 MW. As a reminder, centers labeled as “giants” today exceed the 50 MW threshold—as seen in the projects surrounding the recent tensions in New York State. In other words, Fouju’s future installation is gigantic, so much so that only a handful of projects in the United States (for example Hyperion in Texas) and in China sit in the same category.
