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This would be the same country (The Netherlands) that is prohibiting construction of new data centers... Really joined up thinking!

edwinjm 2y ago
Only in certain areas, not in general.
Cthulhu_ 2y ago
This is because our energy grid is full, American companies have come in to take advantage of our investments in green energy by buying up capacity of newly built offshore windmill parks subsidised by the Dutch and EU governments [0][1], and they're using millions of liters of drinking water to cool their datacenters [2]. Sure, they bring in some money, but is it worth it? We have carbon emission goals to meet as well, but if the projects intended to replace carbon emitting power generators are used for datacenters instead, that won't happen. And using clean drinking water, which is treated, used, and dumped again in surface water, is just a huge waste of our aquifers, especially with climate change. We already saw the water companies reduce pressure and trigger other such water saving measures a few years ago when the stores ran empty, why should a data center take precedence over people? They should pay a premium for this kind of thing. [0] https://nos.nl/artikel/2350450-opening-grootste-windpark-van-nederland-meeste-stroom-naar-datacenter-microsoft https://nos.nl/artikel/2350450-opening-grootste-windpark-van... (translate link: https://nos-nl.translate.goog/artikel/2350450-opening-grootste-windpark-van-nederland-meeste-stroom-naar-datacenter-microsoft?_x_tr_sl=nl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true https://nos-nl.translate.goog/artikel/2350450-opening-groots...) [1] https://news.microsoft.com/2017/10/09/microsoft-ge-sign-agreement-on-new-wind-project-in-ireland/ https://news.microsoft.com/2017/10/09/microsoft-ge-sign-agre... [2] https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/drought-stricken-holland-discovers-microsoft-data-center-slurped-84m-liters-of-drinking-water-last-year/ https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/drought-stricken-...
sebazzz 2y ago
I'm sure we could annex some from Microsoft. You know, for security reasons. Also, data centers from big tech have a large environmental impact and cost a lot of energy, yet do not bring any jobs.

edwinjm 2y ago

Only in certain areas, not in general.

Cthulhu_ 2y ago

This is because our energy grid is full, American companies have come in to take advantage of our investments in green energy by buying up capacity of newly built offshore windmill parks subsidised by the Dutch and EU governments [0][1], and they're using millions of liters of drinking water to cool their datacenters [2]. Sure, they bring in some money, but is it worth it? We have carbon emission goals to meet as well, but if the projects intended to replace carbon emitting power generators are used for datacenters instead, that won't happen. And using clean drinking water, which is treated, used, and dumped again in surface water, is just a huge waste of our aquifers, especially with climate change. We already saw the water companies reduce pressure and trigger other such water saving measures a few years ago when the stores ran empty, why should a data center take precedence over people? They should pay a premium for this kind of thing. [0] https://nos.nl/artikel/2350450-opening-grootste-windpark-van-nederland-meeste-stroom-naar-datacenter-microsoft https://nos.nl/artikel/2350450-opening-grootste-windpark-van... (translate link: https://nos-nl.translate.goog/artikel/2350450-opening-grootste-windpark-van-nederland-meeste-stroom-naar-datacenter-microsoft?_x_tr_sl=nl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true https://nos-nl.translate.goog/artikel/2350450-opening-groots...) [1] https://news.microsoft.com/2017/10/09/microsoft-ge-sign-agreement-on-new-wind-project-in-ireland/ https://news.microsoft.com/2017/10/09/microsoft-ge-sign-agre... [2] https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/drought-stricken-holland-discovers-microsoft-data-center-slurped-84m-liters-of-drinking-water-last-year/ https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/drought-stricken-...

sebazzz 2y ago

I'm sure we could annex some from Microsoft. You know, for security reasons. Also, data centers from big tech have a large environmental impact and cost a lot of energy, yet do not bring any jobs.