The French capital region is rapidly gaining momentum amongst the FLAP-D major metros as more data centre investment lines up.

Digital Realty’s (NYSE: DLR) Interxion is polishing up plans to build a 15-hectare data centre campus in an investment set to reach €1 billion (US$1.16 billion).

Located in Les Ulis/Villejuste, under 25Km away from the Eiffel Tower, data centre facilities built on the land are expected to amount to 130MW of IT load when combined, according to Fabrice Coquio, President of Interxion France, speaking to Le Monde Informatique.

“The planned investment is just under €1 billion and we expect a lot of hyperscaler-type players, but not only that. We are also targeting businesses,” he said.

The executive added the business has also kickstarted a program with Total to progressively replace the fuel oil in its emergency diesel generators with HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) fuel, similar to what UK operator Kao Data has recently done.

Both Interxion and Digital Realty have rejected commenting further on the plans.

Interxion operates today seven data centre sites in the Paris region which connect to the parent company’s – Digital Realty – wider footprint of 290 data centres in 47 cities and over 24 countries.

The operator is in the process of also building a Digital Park with access to up to 85 megawatts (“MW”) of customer available power and will accommodate four data centres spanning a total of approximately 40,000 square metres/430,550 square feet of equipped space.

The first data centre on the site will be Interxion’s eighth data centre in Paris (PAR8) being constructed in three phases, delivering, in aggregate, 9,600 square metres/103,300 square feet of equipped space and 19 MW of power when fully built out.

The first phase of PAR8, which is expected to provide approximately 3,200 square metres/34,400 square feet, is scheduled to open in late 2021.

The capital expenditure associated with PAR8, excluding land and other shared costs for the site, is expected to be approximately €207 million/$240 million.