DATA CENTRES
And , according to the report , “ Data centre developments that are not consistent with these principles would not be in line with government policy ”.
These examples are reflective of a wider drive to push back on new data centres across Europe , either at legal level , on the ground at consumer levels , or both .
A clear warning for the world ’ s data centres Obviously , the rapid growth of the data centre sector will require extensive new builds . And , if these cannot be achieved , then not only will companies be prevented from tapping into new markets and increasing their profits , but data centres run the risk of losing the faith of their users . After all , if the cloud isn ’ t actually ‘ endless ’ and companies are no longer able to entrust all of their data storage to colocation providers , then this relationship could quickly turn sour .
Seemingly , no companies are immune from these regulations – even the largest global giants have found it difficult to find loopholes in the system .
Most famously , in July earlier this year , Meta had to permanently cancel its plans to build a new hyperscale data centre in Zeewolde , the Netherlands .
Interestingly , this came after the initial announcement from the Dutch government actually excluded Facebook ’ s Zeewolde data centre .
After an extensive back-and-forth period of delays and restarts , Meta officially ended its plans to build the Zeewolde data centre .
The project – which would have become the largest data centre in the Netherlands , spanning five data halls and consuming 200MW when complete – was cancelled because there was simply too much pushback for the company to manage .
126 January 2023