According to the latest report, the Dutch housing minister said that the Dutch government has not yet sold the land in the city of Zeewolde to Facebook owner Meta because the company did not meet the conditions for using the land.
The region is understood to have approved a huge plan in December to build a data center from which Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will serve users in Europe. The data center will use 1.38GWh of electricity, cover 166 hectares of farmland, and is expected to use green energy and create 400 permanent jobs.
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But Meta shelved the plan in March of this year. While the Dutch government has tried to attract foreign investment in data centers, public opinion is against it, with some environmentalists saying they do not want the Netherlands’ limited supply of sustainable electricity to be used by multinational companies.
Meta has halted plans to build a large data center in the Netherlands after facing growing opposition from the government. Facebook’s parent company Meta said it was invited in 2019 by local, provincial, and national governments in the Netherlands to consider investing in a data center in the Zeewolde region.
Planning for the so-called hyper-scale data center had been approved by the previous local council, but last week the Dutch Senate voted in favor of a motion to reconsider the plan. In addition, Meta faces opposition at the local level as the Leefbaar Zeewolde party, which recently led a campaign against the investment, recently won a majority in the city.
