INFRASTRUCTURE
“ DATA CENTRES FIXED THE WATER UTILISATION PROBLEM YEARS AGO”
Jean-Francois Berche CTO GreenScale Data Centres
“ Over the last few years, the world has opened up,” says Jamie.“ We’ re now looking at things 150 km from a metro that we never would have dreamed of being able to acquire and develop.”
However, that geographic freedom comes with a catch. The business case for a remote facility looks very different from one in a city centre. Urban data centres can be repurposed and sweated as assets for 20 years or more. Out-of-town AI campuses may need to pay back their investment in as little as eight to 10 years.
Jean-Francois Berche, CTO at GreenScale Data Centres, traces how the priorities driving site selection have shifted over time. In the early days of cloud computing, the overriding question was network access. Then, as AI emerged, the focus moved to power.
“ The way site selection is going to change moving forward,” Jean-Francois begins,“ is we’ re going to go where you have permission to build. We’ re going to live in the permission first – are we welcome in this area? Otherwise, you’ re going to be in trouble.”
52 June 2026