A data center is set to be built on a former factory site south of Paris, France, with waste heat being earmarked to warm greenhouses and a fish farm.

The 20,720 sqm (223,028 sq ft) data center has been proposed for the Thomson industrial site in Bagneaux-sur-Loing, a small town in the Ile de France region.

Developer Essor Group is working with Theia Energy, a renewable energy investment firm, on the project, having abandoned a previous scheme that would’ve seen 200 new homes and commercial units built on the site.

According to Actu.fr, the data center will be accompanied by a greenhouse of 5,500 sqm (59,201 sq ft), which will be used to grow tomatoes and warmed by heat from the data center.

A fish farming site is also planned for the data center. Potential IT capacity for the project has not been disclosed.

Paris-based architecture firm Silvio d’Ascia, which has designed several data centers around the world, is working on the project, and its blueprints incorporate the factory chimneys and structure.

The Thomson factory opened in 1952 and manufactured cathode ray tubes for TVs, but closed in the late 1990s and has been vacant since. Bagneaux-sur-Loing is known for glassmaking, and US firm Corning, which manufactures fiber optic cabling widely used in data centers, has a presence in the town.

Ordinarily, housing developments being shelved in favor of data centers is a source of angst among residents, but news of the change of direction has been welcomed in Bagneaux-sur-Loing. A forthcoming planning application for the site will be supported by local councillors.

Speaking to Actu.fr, town mayor Claude Jamet said demand for housing in the area is low, and that local infrastructure would have struggled to cope with an influx of new residents.

“Our schools are already overcrowded,” Jamet said. “If we had 200 new homes, we wouldn’t have been able to expand the schools. We simply don’t have the space.”