With rumours about whether Google will or will not set up an operation in the Grand Duchy, it appears that a decision is imminent.

Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Economy, Etienne Schneider, informaed members of the Economic Committee on Monday that a 25 hectare site in Bissen/Roost has been proposed to Google Inc., which is looking to establish a presence in various jurisdictions this year. The move is understood to be partly to defend itself against the surge of Amazon in the potentially lucrative Web Services market; Google is understood to the planning up to 12 such data centres around the world, with the US and Japan already confirmed for two sites.

The site in Bissen/Roost - not too far from the Goodyear R&D facility in Colmar-Berg and the Creos electricity maintenance centre, would be for a large data centre: Luxembourg has the highest concentration of Tier IV data centres - the highest certification currently available - in the world.

One of the delays regarding this specific location is that that not all the landowners involved have confirmed their willingness to sell. Minister Schneider hopes that this issue will be resolved within days. If any when this is done, a plan for the rezoning and redevelopment will have to be prepared and passed, a process which can be known to drag on.

The investment is understood to be in the range of €1 billion and could create up to 300 jobs both directly and indirectly, according to Minister Schneider, although it is really too early to say as Google's "Luxembourg" project has not been clearly defined. The data centre would consume much electricity; here Luxembourg has an advantage, with one of the lowest commercial electricity rates in the EU.