Groningen’s doors remain open to the prospect of the construction of two gargantuan data centres, reports the NOS. The news comes after similar construction projects in North Holland and Flevoland fell through due to the scale and energy requirements.
The original plan, which was proposed by Facebook’s parent organization and tech giant, Meta, outlined a required space equal to 245 football fields, reports the Groninger Internet Courant. The project was designed around the construction of a hyperscale data centre of enormous proportions, designed to match Meta’s high server demands.
Similarly sized locations have been made available in Groningen; however, it remains to be seen whether an interested organization will materialize any concrete plans for the data centres.
“We were approached by large space users who wanted to settle around the Eemshaven,” said the Commissioner for Spatial Planning in Groningen, Mirjam Wulfse, to the NOS. She suggested a 600-hectare plot of land in Oostpolder, nearby the municipality of Eeemshaven. The grounds, as of now, are farmland.
According to Economie Groningen, Wulfse is open to more than just data centres in the area. This includes companies from the energy sector, high-tech organizations, and car battery manufacturers. While Wulfse is clearly optimistic about the prospect of a large-scale project in the north, the local council is still in debate on the topic. As of yet, no party has made claim to the space.
Seventeen projects are still in the works elsewhere in the Netherlands involving the construction of new data centres of varying sizes, and the renovation of existing facilities. The construction of smaller data centres in provinces such as North Holland also remains a distinct possibility, as the dust still settles from the fallout of the Meta project.
According to data shared by the NOS, the Netherlands, thanks to a high density of data centres in Amsterdam, is one of Europe’s leading digital infrastructures alongside Dublin, Frankfurt, London, and Paris.
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