More media attention is given to emerging data center projects, such as the largest data center in Amsterdam currently being built at Westpoort by Pure DC – same British company responsible for the growing data center in Amsterdam Sloterdijk area.

Answers by Minister of Climate and Green Growth largely stem from NRC's January investigation instigated by our research on data center environmental transparency in the Netherlands.

The Dutch Minister Boekholt-O'Sullivan (Housing and Spatial Planning) answered questions regarding the report 'Concerns about new hyperscale Amsterdam'.

The questions were asked by MPs Kostic and Teunissen (both PvdD) in January, 2026.

A motion was proposed by members Zalinyan and Grinwis requesting the Dutch parliament to draw up a national approach to data centers and data cables and to include this in the Spatial Planning Memorandum.

Our blog post was mentioned by Carola Houtekamer for the rough estimate of Microsoft's electricity consumption in the Netherlands on the NPO radio program Argos with journalists Joost Schellevis of NOS and VPRO's Saar Slegers.

We were interviewed by Nu.nl that uncovered a planned Equinix data center project in Lelystad circumvented a nationwide ban on the establishment of large data centers.

'Max Schulze of technology think tank Leitmotiv also says that the impact of the data center was "clearly misrepresented" in the answers to council questions. At full capacity, he says, the data center would even use as much power as half a million households. "The information provided makes it sound very small."'

However, data centers must also be at least 10 hectares in size to fall under the ban. The three Equinix buildings in Lelystad will cover a maximum of 7.5 hectares, according to the zoning plan. Therefore, the permit application was still allowed.

"This clearly circumvents the rules," says Schulze of Leitmotiv. "The intention of the spatial strategy is that large data centers are only allowed in certain zones, because space and energy are limited in the Netherlands. This clearly contradicts that."

Parliament Members Kostic and Teunissen (both PvdD) officially submitted questions to the State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations and the Ministers of Housing and Spatial Planning and of Climate and Green Growth regarding the report "Zorgen over nieuwe hyperscale Amsterdam" (Concerns about the new hyperscale Amsterdam) and mentioned the accompanying appeal by Leitmotiv and other civil society organizations.

Both online & in print, an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper mentioned our open letter:

"In a letter to the province, the digital civil rights movements Bits of Freedom, Leitmotiv, Advocates for the Future, Critical Infrastructure Lab, and De Goede Zaak raised concerns about the scale of the data center and its high electricity consumption. They also expressed their concerns about the impact of hyperscale technologies on democracy and what exactly happens in the data center." (translated)

Since we sent a joint letter with other civil society organisations to the municipality of Amsterdam and the province of North Holland, our collaboration with investigative journalists from NRC had a positive effect – the newspaper uncovered Microsoft as the tenant of this new site, raising questions on circumvention of the hyperscale data center moratorium.

A Dutch political party referenced our letter on the arrival of hyperscale data center in Sloterdijk, stating data drawn from the collective letter we sent with other civil society organisations:

"Despite a national and local moratorium on hyperscale data centers, the Province has issued a permit for the construction of an enormous data center in the Western Docklands of Amsterdam. This involves no fewer than three towers, each 80 meters high with 12 floors and a total surface area of ​​over 100,000 m². Data centers are energy guzzlers; this data center consumes the same amount of energy as all Amsterdam households combined. Furthermore, this appears to be a speculative hyperscale development, as the project has been in development since 2019 but not a single spade has yet broken ground." (translated)

Our joint letter with other civil society organisations sent to the municipality of Amsterdam and the province of North Holland was discussed in the Amsterdam's city council on January 21st, introduced by Anke Bakker of the Party for the Animals (PvdD). Time: 7:50:01 minutes.

We were interviewed for a Datacenter Insider article where our analysis of RVO data provided factual evidence.

"The think tank Leitmotiv has evaluated the information reported by data center operators in the Netherlands as part of the EED for the first time. According to this information, only one third of the reported data center space is filled with IT, and two thirds of the available electrical connection power is unused." (translated)

NRC's investigation uncovered that Microsoft is the tenant, which then triggered a national political debate in the Dutch parliament.

Our research about Data Center Environmental Transparency in the Netherlands was mentioned in their article "Google en Microsoft houden energiegebruik van hyperscale-datacenters geheim voor de overheid" for which we were also interviewed.

"Christiaan van Veen of Leitmotiv: 'The EU and the Netherlands have imposed transparency obligations on data centers to enable better policymaking, including on their energy consumption. But that goal won't be achieved if the largest companies in this sector simply refuse to provide more openness.'" (translated)

NRC also shared their on LinkedIn which sparked a big online debate (700+ likes, 80+ comments, 50+ reposts on the platform).

We were interviewed by Nu.nl and our research about Data Center Environmental Transparency in the Netherlands was mentioned in their article "Veel datacenters weigeren te publiceren hoeveel water en stroom ze verbruiken".

Our opinion piece on the lack of electricity consumption by data centers was published by the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper.