A 300MW data center could be set up at a coal-fired power plant in Metz, France, which is being converted to biogas.

The data center would be built at the Saint-Avold industrial site in the Moselle department, outside Metz in eastern France.

It is home to the Émile-Huchet power plant, a coal-fired site that will close in 2026. Operator GazelEnergie is in the process of redeveloping the power station so that it runs on biogas, with a view to it resuming operations in 2027.

The plan is for work on the data center to start in 2028, and GazelEnergie executives said they are in discussions with potential partners about investing in the scheme.

The site is already home to a battery storage facility of 35MW, and has other backup power and cooling infrastructure that could speed up any data center development.

In comments reported by DCMag, Antonin Arnoux, director of the Saint-Avold site, said: “There is land, good infrastructure, including important connections to the electricity transmission network, all of which ticks the boxes of what a data center needs. It needs space and low-carbon energy.”

France is in the midst of an AI data center build-out, and co-locating digital infrastructure with power plants is an idea floated by state-backed energy firm EDF last year. In March, it followed this up with a call for expressions of interest from firms interested in developing on its land.

This week, data center firm Data4 announced it had agreed to offtake 40MW of nuclear power from EDF to serve its facilities in France.