But now that the second Microsoft data center is insisting and a piece of land has even been bought, hope drops. “The battle was fought a while ago,” says member Jan Dekker.
Influence of residents?
According to Dekker, the impact for the environment is great. “Power and water are already critical points, if you want to give it all to a data center? In addition, the landscape changes permanently.”
Although there is not yet a detailed plan on the table, this time Microsoft is looking for contact with the area earlier. “We want to be extra transparent and collaborate more with our neighbors. We have learned our lessons,” said Nick Hengelman, Director of Datacenters Nederland at Microsoft.
Whether that also leads to the real influence of residents in practice, Dekker doubts. “In the construction of the previous data center, contact was also made. In the end they planted a few trees around the building, nothing more.”
Broken political promise
At the time, the arrival of the first data center had political consequences. Due to the dissatisfaction of residents and the pressure from action groups, the then municipal administration lost confidence. New ‘protest party’ Independent Hollands Kroon (OHK), with party leader Pieter de Jong, became the largest in the municipality in 2022. In the same year, OHK argued for a stop on further development of ‘energy -slurping data centers’.