The province of North Holland considers it important that data centers make a full commitment to sustainability and innovation. Therefore, the province has drawn up a guideline. These deal, for example, with reducing water use, planting and sharing residual heat. Municipalities are required to discuss the guideline with the initiator of a data center.
According to North Holland, data centers are "crucial in an increasingly digital society. Data centers make it possible, for example, to hold digital meetings, for emergency services to communicate with each other and for you to store and share your own digital documents."
Esther Rommel, deputy for the economy: "Data centers are here to stay and an awful lot of companies, organizations and individuals in the Netherlands depend on them. The developments of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are moving at lightning speed. North Holland therefore wants to be and remain an attractive location for data centers. But sufficient attention must be paid to the impact of data centers. Data centers have a major impact on the landscape and the water system. And they use a lot of electricity. That's why the province felt it was important to draw up a data center strategy."
The strategy was an important step to guide the establishment and sustainable development of data centers in North Holland. Among other things, the strategy stipulated that new data centers should only be located in business parks in Amsterdam, Haarlemmermeer and Hollands Kroon.
Gray 'boxes'
The directive now adopted by Gedeputeerde Staten (GS) stems from the strategy. The guideline is the result of discussions between the province of North Holland, the municipality of Amsterdam, Haarlemmermeer and Hollands Kroon. The North Sea Canal Area Environmental Service also provided input.
Esther Rommel: "Sustainability and innovation are always on the agenda when we enter into discussions with parties about data centers. We find it very important that data centers pay attention to, for example, the use of residual heat and water conservation. Integration into the landscape also always deserves attention. Data centers are usually huge gray 'boxes' and determine the image of an area. By connecting to the surroundings and choosing the right green-blue incorporation with trees, shrubs and water features, a lot can be gained. We now require initiators to take a serious look at the guideline and ask them to justify why it can or cannot be met."
Custom
The directive are in addition to legal requirements arising from national and European legislation that data centers must comply with anyway. The application of the directive will be different for each data center. It involves customization that must take into account the type of data center and local conditions.
