There will be a nine-month halt on the construction of new mega data centers, aka hyperscalers named. This has been decided by Minister De Jonge of Housing and Spatial Planning, he writes in a letter to the House of Representatives.
The cabinet is currently working on a policy regarding this type of data center and wants to prevent new construction plans with this decision. The much-discussed ‘direction’ from the central government – which, according to critics, has been lacking in recent years – comes in the form of an order in council in which the new rules are elaborated.
The planned data center of Facebook’s parent company Meta in Zeewolde is not part of the decision. The intended outcome of this led to a heated discussion in December because of the enormous size and impact on the energy grid.
In addition, the locations Eemshaven in Groningen (where Google is located) and Middenmeer in North Holland (where Google is also located and where Microsoft is building a second data center) are excluded from the decision. Those two places are considered suitable.
As part of the tightening up, De Jonge wants to investigate whether hyperscalers can now only be built on the coast, where they can be connected to wind energy “if there is room for it”. If that is indeed possible, there is a very good chance that the data center in Zeewolde will be the last hyperscale data center in the middle of the country.
Plans for data centers
Only building applications for data centers of 10 hectares or more and an electricity connection of 70 megawatts or more will no longer be processed for the time being. There are plans for data centers of this size or even larger in a number of places in the Netherlands. These are Appingedam (20 hectares), Groningen (20 hectares), Winschoten (15 hectares) and Lelystad (10 hectares). They are, however, much smaller than Meta’s planned data center, which covers 166 hectares.
The spokespersons of the various municipalities cannot immediately indicate what De Jonge’s decision means for the plans that are already in place. Earlier, Almere decided to hold back.
No other hyperscale projects
According to industry association Dutch Datacenter Association, there are currently no other hyperscale projects in the Netherlands. A spokesperson for Minister De Jonge cannot say immediately whether the decision affects initiatives. It had already become clear that there are still plans for 20 to 25 expansions or new locations of data centers. But it is not known how many hyperscalers are in between.
In the 54-page letter to Parliament, De Jonge also elaborates on the situation in Zeewolde. He continues the policy of his predecessor. This means that the construction of the data center depends on the Central Government Real Estate Agency, which currently owns about half of the land and sets requirements for the sale.
This video explains how much energy the planned data center in Zeewolde uses:
The municipality of Zeewolde is currently finalizing documentation that must demonstrate that sale is the right step. It must be available in the foreseeable future. This sales procedure is also the reason that Zeewolde is not part of this decision, says a spokesperson.
Furthermore, De Jonge explains that within the current policy it is preferable to set up hyperscale data centers on the edges of the country, but that these are not legally binding agreements. In other words: provinces and municipalities are allowed to make their own assessment, as happened in Zeewolde.
He also writes that there is currently no possibility to stop the construction of the data center. This is therefore only possible if the Central Government Real Estate Agency does not proceed with the sale. He also emphasizes that in a general sense the government is not against hyperscale data centers and will not exclude them.