The American software group Microsoft has been building a new hyperscale data center and its own high-voltage station in the Wieringermeerpolder in North Holland for almost a year now, without having the necessary permits. Farmers and local residents fear that the construction works will soon be finished without a building or nitrogen permit ever being issued.
Since April 2022, hundreds of British and Irish construction workers have been working on an expansion of the existing Microsoft data center conglomerate on the industrial area Het Venster next to the A7 in the municipality of Hollands Kroon. However, the granting of permits for the new building has come to a standstill because Microsoft cannot complete the calculations of the nitrogen emissions during the construction of the enormous complex.
For a month now, the software group has had to provide data to the North Sea Canal Area Environment Agency, which issues permits on behalf of the province of North Holland, showing that hardly any nitrogen was released during construction. That is not possible, partly because heavy diesel machines were used during construction, which emit a lot of nitrogen.
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The construction of Microsoft’s latest data center is very messy. The instigator of the confusion is the municipality of Hollands Kroon, with which Microsoft thought to arrange the paperwork for the complex at Het Venster in the autumn of 2020 – while the province was actually responsible for this major construction project. After reporting on this NRC Microsoft still had to apply for the permits from Noord-Holland.
Council of State
The province initially took a reasonable attitude and informed the tech company in September 2021 that the construction of the data center would be tolerated.
However, that commitment was overtaken by a decision of the Council of State of November 2022, which canceled the exemption for nitrogen emissions during construction. As a result, Microsoft must receive retroactive approval for all nitrogen released during construction.
Farmers in the region are complaining about the “preferential treatment” of the US multinational. “Increasingly stricter nitrogen rules apply to us and no exception is being created,” says Henk Geerligs, farmer in Hollands Kroon and vice-chairman of the local branch of agricultural organization LTO. “We are not allowed to add anything extra, while Microsoft has been building without a permit for almost a year.”
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On paper, the province can force Microsoft to demolish the buildings if the permit is not finalized, but that is not realistic. Geerligs: “Our goal is not to bother Microsoft, but we do want to be treated equally as farmers. Once the data center is there, it is a fait accompli and it will never go away.”
Also ‘advance’ on the power grid
The Wieringermeerpolder is one of the two locations in the Netherlands where new hyperscale data centers can be built. The other location is Eemshaven. The cabinet designated these two places last year, after a fuss arose about the possible arrival of a gigantic data center from Facebook’s parent company Meta to Zeewolde. One of the problems is the enormous power demand of the hyperscales.
The high-voltage station that Microsoft is building at the Window on its own initiative has the same licensing problems as the data center, says Jan Meijles of action group ‘Red de Wieringermeer’. But there is more to it, he says: “Many companies in North Holland are waiting for a power connection. But no one builds their own heavy intermediate station like Microsoft. It is strange that the province allows Microsoft to get ahead of the power grid in this way.”
Farmers in the region complain about the ‘preferential treatment’ of US companies
Microsoft now has eight warehouses full of servers in the Wieringermeerpolder. Together they consume half the electricity of the neighboring wind farm – the largest in the Netherlands. When the new data hall and the intermediate station on the Window are ready, Microsoft wants to continue building the next hyperscale data center on an adjacent plot, right on the A7.
Lars Ruiter, council member in Hollands Kroon for Independent Hollands Kroon, says that his party is “very critical” about the state of affairs. “I find it incomprehensible that the province tolerates that the data center can be built without a permit, especially now that many housing projects cannot proceed because the nitrogen cannot be compensated.”
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A spokesperson for Hollands-Kroon says that the municipality has pleaded with the province for faster decision-making. “We understand that new case law and procedural matters require more time. Nevertheless, we are concerned about the length of the procedure,” said a recent letter to the province of Noord-Holland.
Environmental Service
The Environment Agency says on behalf of the province that it is still “assessing nitrogen emissions during the construction phase of the project. That assessment must be awaited.” A factor in this is that Microsoft must provide “detailed additional information”. The spokesperson says that “the risk of building in anticipation of the environmental permit” lies with Microsoft and that “no distinction” is made between applicants, including between farmers and tech companies.
A spokesperson for Microsoft says that the tech company is in “constant talks” with the province and the municipality of Hollands Kroon to ensure that the company “complies with all required and applicable laws and regulations at all stages of development, construction and operation”. .” The new data center at Het Venster will be built “to support the expansion of the existing data center area and the growing demand for cloud services in the Netherlands.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of February 28, 2023