Google is building a 50-hectare 'energy-gobbling' AI data centre on farmland in Austria, sparking outrage from locals.

Villagers in Kronstorf are protesting against the development, which is slated to be one of Europe's largest data hubs when it opens in 2027.

On Friday, 300 demonstrators congregated at the building site, carrying placards that read 'Google go home' and 'Think first, then decide - no to energy-gobbler Google'.

Critics warn that the 'hyperscale' site will lead to the loss of agrarian land over an area equivalent to 70 football fields.

Campaigners, who argue that their environmental concerns have been ignored, say the centre could negatively affect water and energy supplies as well as marine life.

The site would be the home of Google's artificial intelligence operations, as well as the company's cloud services, Google Maps and streaming on YouTube.

Politicians in the state of Upper Austria argue that the project will bolster the local economy and show that the region is pushing ahead.

But opponents say big tech and business interests are taking precedent over the threat to nature, and have called for an urgent examination of the project's environmental impact.

'Especially after the recent heatwave, we’ve all seen what happens when the climate keeps getting warmer', one protester told the local news outlet Wiener Zeitung.

'We need to make sure that the big tech giants don’t speed this up even more and ruin our standards of living in the process.'

Because Austria’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act does not cover data centres, Google’s proposal was not subjected to environmental scrutiny by the government.

One demonstrator said: 'If I wanted to add an extension to my roof, I’d have to go through all sorts of procedures. But apparently not for something like this.'

Harald Müllner, 62, of Citizens’ Initiative Data Centre Kronstorf, which organised the demonstration, said villagers feared that, without significant scrutiny, the development would have far-reaching consequences for the area's water and energy supplies.

'Our aim is to gather all the facts, ensure transparency, and reveal the impacts on society, the environment and quality of life,' he said.