In Wissous (Essonne), a small town wedged between Orly airport and the A6 and A10 motorways, residents would have done well without the establishment of a giant Amazon Web Services data center. Located a few dozen meters from a nursery and two schools, it “literally touches the windows of certain homes”, points to Philippe De Fruyt, opposition municipal councilor and president of the Wissous notre ville association.
In order to exempt itself from the authorization required under the local urban plan for installations classified for environmental protection of more than 50 megawatts (MW), Amazon has “salamied” its 100 MW project in three phases. But only the first phase, of 19.8 MW, has so far been completed, due to the numerous appeals filed. The thirty members of Wissous, our town, deplore the choice of a site without a heat network. “According to the impact study carried out by Amazon, the heat will increase the temperature of the atmosphere by 0.5 to 2°C, while recovered, it could heat 20,000 homes”, says Jean-Luc Touly, member of the association. They also fear the work on the electrical connection, which should cross the city center, and the noise from the 24 generators located on the roof of the center.
A complaint that comes up regularly, confides Philippe Schmit, president of the Ile-de-France Regional Environmental Authority Mission (MRAE): “Every month, the tests of the generators intended to take over in the event of a breakdown in the electricity network emit a lot of noise, but also large quantities of nitrogen dioxide, in areas that are already often very polluted.”
Botched impact study
Extreme case, the Colt data center, in Les Ulis (Essonne), had to operate for eleven days on a generator following a power cut in 2020. In La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis), the mobilization against Digital Realty’s PAR7 started over a decade ago. Matilda Mijajlovic and Khadija Aït Oumasste, who live opposite the 19,000 m² building, have not forgotten anything. A data center that arrived on the sly, without displaying a building permit. Their procedure initiated in 2015 resulted in the judgment of PAR7 by the Montreuil administrative court, which deemed the noise impact study insufficient. But activity finally resumed, after some adjustments. To the despair of the two residents, whose petition had collected 1000 signatures. “It’s very hot and the constant noise keeps me from sleeping. I feel like I’m living on the side of the highway.” laments Matilda Mijajlovic.
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Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
