ANP/Novum RegionPhotos
–
NOS News•today, 07:06
–
-
Nando Kasteleijn
editor Tech
—
-
Nando Kasteleijn
editor Tech
—
–—
If there are still tech giants interested in building a hyperscaledata center in the Netherlands, such a center will probably be located in the north of Groningen. The province tells the NOS that it is open to this.
–
A tour of the twelve provinces also shows that there are at least another seventeen plans for new data centers or extensions of existing ones, of varying sizes. These are projects in North Holland and Groningen. Not everything is final yet. There may still be plans for smaller data centers for which a municipality and not a province is responsible.
–
–
Block boxes full of state-of-the-art computers have become the focus of discussion in recent months, inspired by Zeewolde† There, the parent company of Facebook, Meta, wanted to build a data center on a plot of land with about 245 football fields. The project – and with it mega data centers in general – came under fire for its size and the flow it demands.
–
–
ANP
–
The place in Zeewolde where Meta’s now deleted mega data center was provided –
The other municipality is Het Hogeland (Groningen). The Commissioner for Spatial Planning there, Mirjam Wulfse, informed the NOS that her province is still open to such large data centers. The responsible alderman in Het Hogeland does not want to respond yet and first awaits coordination in the council.
–
600 hectares of land
“We were approached by large space users who wanted to settle around Eemshaven,” says Wulfse. The province and the municipality then went to see where there was space. “We have arrived at the Oostpolder, which is located next to the Eemshaven. That is a 600 hectare site, where large space users can go.” That area is still farmland.
–
As far as Wulfse is concerned, there is room for one or a maximum of two mega data centers, but only if this fits in with the mix of companies in the area. Ultimately, she hopes for three to five parties; companies from the high-tech industry, car and battery companies and from the energy sector are also welcome. She also wants to place windmills there. No party has yet come forward that wants to build a mega data center in the area.
–
View here an overview of the plans in North Holland and Groningen:
–
-
–
NOS
–
Overview of planned data centers in North Holland –
–
NOS
–
Overview of planned data centers in Groningen –
—-—
The NOS also spoke to three data center players to hear how they experience the debate. For example, Microsoft, owner of a hyperscale data center in Hollands Kroon (and busy expanding), emphasizes that “half of the Netherlands” runs with them. It concerns 350,000 companies that use the online services of the software giant.
–
“Are we using this data center 100 percent for the Netherlands? No,” says Rob Elsinga, responsible for technology at Microsoft Netherlands. “But that does not apply to Schiphol or the port of Rotterdam either.” Elsinga says that it has difficulty with people assuming only what the Netherlands needs.
–
In bad daylight
Alex Bit, technical director of BIT data centers, believes that the hyperscalers put the entire sector in a bad light. “It is actually a completely different branch of sport. In all kinds of ways. We provide services to almost exclusively Dutch companies.”
–
His company serves customers from a typical industrial estate in Ede; incomparable to the size of the data centers of the tech giants.
–
–
ANP
–
One of the data centers of the American Equinix in Amsterdam –
Finally, the Dutch director of global data center player Equinix. They have so-called co-locations; data centers where you as a company can connect your own computers. “I understand the gut feeling ‘it’s ready’. That you wonder whether the sector should grow that fast,” says Michiel Eielts, also chairman of the Dutch trade association for the sector.
–
He emphasizes that the growth will continue for a while. The question is simply there. “Everyone wants a smartphone, but nobody understands that you need a server in a data center for that.”
—
-
-
