The municipality of Amsterdam has decided that new data centres may be welcome, but on a limited scale and under strict conditions. The move would open the way for Amsterdam to meet the growing need for data centres, to facilitate matters such as working from home and video calling. The policy still has to be approved by the city council, after a consultation period set to runs until the end of August.
The municipalities of Amsterdam and Haarlemmermeer decided last year to no longer allow the construction of new data centres, citing their heavy footprint on available space and the energy grid. If approved, the new policy for 2020-2030 would allow limited growth. Haarlemmermeer announced in June that it would again allow construction.
Under the proposal under consultation, the municipality said new data centres would only be possible in areas where they are already present. This would mean the areas of Amstel III, Science Park, Schinkelkwartier and Haven/Haven-Stad. Until 2030, the average growth of data centres per year would not be allowed to exceed 67 megavolts ampere (MVA).
Data centres would also have to meet conditions in the areas of energy consumption, water consumption for cooling, residual heat, spatial integration and circular construction. Data centres with a large capacity (over 80 MVA) would have to build their own station to prevent the electricity grid from getting overloaded and to ensure that sufficient space remains on the grid for other Amsterdam tasks.Purchased energy would have to come from sustainable sources, and residual heat would have to be released free of charge, to heat homes, for example.
The municipality of Amsterdam is also looking into whether the ground floor of new data centres could be shared, for example, with catering establishments or companies. It in addition wants to make sure new data centres fit well into the built environment.
Regional data center strategy
The location policy for data centres in Amsterdam is closely related to the regional strategy for data centres within the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (MRA). A new cluster for data centers in the MRA is currently being examined.
