Senate calls on Central Government Real Estate Agency not to sell land to Meta – IT Pro – News

The Senate wants the government not to sell any land to Facebook parent company Meta before a government vision for spatial planning and data centers has been prepared. A motion on this has been passed in the Senate. Meta wants to buy about 80 hectares of land from the government at Zeewolde.

In the motion, submitted by the Party for the Animals, states that the Central Government Real Estate Agency must wait with the sale of the land until the House of Representatives has clear what the vision is for spatial planning and data centers. The coalition agreement states that new conditions must be set for hyperscale data centers such as Meta’s to be able to establish itself in the Netherlands.

According to the Senate, the arrival of the data center is “contrary to the public interest and what has been included in the coalition agreement about data centers and good spatial planning”, the motion reads. The Senate states that the data center at Zeewolde places a significant burden on our energy supply, on fertile agricultural land and on scarce freshwater supplies.

Meta plans to build a hyperscale data center on a 166 hectare site on former farmland. The company bought through an intermediate company in April about 80 hectares of the municipality of Zeewolde. The other half has to buy Meta from the Central Government Real Estate Agency, because it concerns government land. That will already impose additional conditions in the field of sustainability, said outgoing State Secretary Knops in conversation with the NOS. Ultimately, approximately 14 hectares will be built on with five data center halls measuring 400 by 70 metres.

The purchase of the land is one of the last hurdles for Meta, after a majority of the council of Zeewolde on Thursday approved the change to the zoning plan. of the terrain voted. With that, Meta didn’t seem to be bothered by the new rules around hyperscale data centers that are included in the coalition agreement. The cabinet says that stricter admission criteria must be applied to the licensing of hyperscales and the Dutch government will ‘tighten national control’. The coalition agreement does not yet state what this will mean in practice. The Senate wants the sale to Meta to be postponed until it is more clearly described in an additional parliamentary vision.