Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, wants to build the largest data center in Europe in the Dutch municipality of Zeewolde, but that plan is faltering. The city council will vote on it on Thursday. Whether there will be a majority for the server farm is exciting, as the protest against it is reaching a boiling point.
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Yorick Dupon
Latest update: 16:35
Source: De Stentor, Omroep Flevoland, municipality of Zeewolde, Tweakers.net, Central Bureau of Statistics
Meta’s data center is to be located at a future business park in Zeewolde. This is a municipality of more than 20,000 inhabitants, an hour’s drive from Amsterdam. The buildings will be on a site of 166 hectares or about 250 football fields. About 1380 gigawatt hours of electricity is needed for the servers of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. That is comparable to the use of 200,000 families, approximately the number of inhabitants of Ghent.
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If the council members of Zeewolde vote against, it is a slap in the face for Meta. The technology giant has been negotiating with the polder municipality since 2019. Originally, Meta’s involvement had to remain secret until the plans were finalized, according to Omroep Flevoland.
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Since the press conference where the plans were unveiled, the project has gone from one controversy to another. Like this came out that Meta has lobbied very actively with the Dutch government to obtain preferential treatment from the network operator. The Facebook parent company threatened to move to another country with the server park if the demands were not met.
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‘Dance to the pipe’ of the ‘great monopolists’
In addition, the Meta data center has encountered protests from farmers and nature lovers. The server park is in the agricultural field. Farmer Jaap Lodders says to the Dutch newspaper De Stentor to be surprised that the municipality ‘dances to the tune’ of ‘big monopolists’ like the Instagram parent company. According to nature organization Natuurmonumenten in the same newspaper, the arrival of Meta mainly causes damage to the area.
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Thomas Spekschoor @TBspekschoor
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Action group Extinction Rebellion also gets involved in the debates. They did that last weekend by occupying the town hall of Zeewolde. “We are in the middle of a climate crisis, and that means we have to be careful with our energy. The arrival of this data center will have a huge impact on the energy system in the Netherlands. Moreover, Facebook is not a nice company”, says spokesperson Guus Dix at De Stentor. Some of the protesters had to be dragged out by police officers.
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The issue has now transcended the municipality of Zeewolde and reached the Dutch parliament. A member of parliament from the Christian-social party ChristenUnie – a party that is part of the current and new government of Mark Rutte – has formally requested that the land not yet be sold to Mark Zuckerberg’s company. The ChristenUnie party in the Zeewolde city council plans to vote against the data center and thus gained support at a national level. The largest party Liveable Zeewolde also plans to vote against.
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Mayor of Zeewolde: “Fake news” in “a Fabeltjeskrant”
All this criticism in the media and society is not liked by Zeewolder mayor Gerrit Jan Gorter. According to him people are fooled by ‘fake news’ in newspapers. He does not dare to name a newspaper, but he speaks of ‘a Fabeltjeskrant’.
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Nineteen city councilors must decide on Thursday about the arrival of Meta. That is easier said than done, because it is one of the most important decisions of their political career. It also has to be done in a short time. “We get a few thousand pages of information two weeks in advance. We are always ten steps behind,” a councilor told De Stentor.
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Whether the plan survives Thursday’s city council is still exciting. If, in addition to ChristenUnie and Leefbaar Zeewolde, one other party withdraws, there is no longer a majority. Then Meta can look for another location to build a gigantic data center.
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