The world is transforming into a digital economy, and data centers are working hard to achieve this growth in a sustainable way. By concentrating IT in data centers, significant energy savings are achieved. As a result, the energy consumption of data centers in the Netherlands is limited to just 0.44% of the country’s total energy consumption, despite the massive use of digital services.
Data centers are purpose-built to facilitate IT systems as efficiently as possible. Their scale allows them to save energy costs for cooling and operating equipment. This also enables them to use the latest, energy-efficient technologies. As a result, electricity consumption has remained virtually stable over a period of 10 years, despite the increase in data traffic.
As a sector, we are committed every day to furthering the sustainability of the digital economy, focusing on green energy, energy and water efficiency, and the reuse of residual heat. This aligns with natural economic incentives because the fewer resources a data center consumes, the lower the costs and the stronger the competitive position. For this reason, data centers frequently adopt the latest technologies, the best equipment, and the newest innovations.
Research by CBS shows that data centers in the Netherlands consume 3.3% of the country’s electricity, equivalent to 0.44% of the total energy consumption in the Netherlands. Of this electricity, 90% is purchased as green energy by DDA data centers (State of the Dutch Data Centers 2023).
CBS, commissioned by the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK) and the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK), was granted access to the supply records of TenneT, Liander, and related parties. This allowed for an exact determination of how much electricity was delivered to all standalone data centers in the Netherlands between 2017 and 2021. The findings showed that the actual consumption was significantly lower than previously assumed.
Currently, data centers in the Netherlands consume 3.7 billion kilowatt hours (TWh) of electricity, accounting for 3.3% of the country’s total electricity consumption. When considering the total energy consumption in the Netherlands, which is 3,024 Petajoules (PJ), the data center sector uses the equivalent of 13.32 PJ. This represents 0.44% of the total energy consumption.
According to annual DDA research, Dutch data centers affiliated with the DDA now purchase 99% of their energy needs sustainably. Data centers lead the way in the use of renewable energy compared to almost all other industries. This energy is sourced both within the Netherlands and internationally. Through the ‘Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact,’ the European data center sector has collectively committed to becoming climate neutral by 2030. It is expected that Dutch data centers will achieve this goal much earlier.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), data centers worldwide consumed approximately 220-320 TWh in 2021. The IEA reports that data centers and data transmission networks each accounted for about 1.1% of global electricity consumption in 2021—the same as in 2010. This is remarkable given that since 2010, the number of internet users has doubled, and internet traffic has increased twentyfold.
The reason for this is that the concentration of IT in data centers has kept energy consumption stable over this period, with minimal growth. By relocating inefficient server spaces to larger, more professional, and efficient data centers, energy consumption has become significantly more efficient. Thanks to these savings and the use of more cloud applications, energy consumption has remained more or less unchanged despite the massive growth in internet traffic.
A good example of this is the Dutch national government, which reduced the number of its data centers from over 60 to just 5, thereby halving its energy consumption.
By entering into long-term procurement contracts (PPAs), data centers play a crucial role in securing financing for new wind and solar parks without subsidies. As stable large-scale energy consumers, data centers are key partners in enabling green energy projects, such as new wind farms, during their initial phases. Few sectors are as committed to this as data centers, and the sector is already close to achieving the end goals of the Climate Agreement.
Data center residual heat is highly suitable for our new heating infrastructure, where local systems utilize local heat sources. Data centers are located in most major cities and can supply sustainable heat to local heating networks for the built environment. This is already a reality in several places. At Amsterdam Science Park, 1,300 apartments are heated using data center heat, while in Eindhoven, about 40 office buildings at the High Tech Campus are supplied, along with a swimming pool, a school, and a greenhouse in Aalsmeer. Soon, approximately 10,000 homes in Groningen will also benefit. In addition, there are concrete plans for Amsterdam Southeast, a business park near Haarlem, and an industrial area at Schiphol-Rijk. However, the potential is much greater if the current restrictive regulations are adjusted.
With new developments in construction, where buildings are becoming much more energy-efficient, the lower temperature of data center residual heat (25-30 ℃) is perfectly suited. Since most data centers use green electricity—99% of which is sustainably sourced by DDA members—data center residual heat is also sustainably generated. By using energy twice, it serves as an excellent example of a circular society.
In terms of sustainability, the ICT sector has extensive experience and has already taken significant steps forward. For over fifteen years, many ICT companies, including data centers, have been collaborating with the government on energy savings and CO2 reduction. These efforts are part of the Energy Agreement and the Multi-Year Energy Efficiency Agreements (MJA3/MEE).
The most recent figures from MJA3/MEE (2021) show that, since 2005, the ICT sector (39.1%), Financial Service Providers (40.1%), and the Margarine, Fats, and Oils industry (35.9%) have achieved the most relative energy savings.
In terms of efficiency, measured by PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), Dutch data centers are among the leaders in Europe. Nowhere else are efficiency standards as stringent as in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (PUE < 1.2).
The data center sector is one of the larger industrial sectors that is already fully electrified and, as a result, has no direct greenhouse gas emissions. Data centers only switch to their own backup power supplies during interruptions in the power supply. In the Netherlands, power outages are relatively rare: over the past five years, users experienced an average of just 24 minutes of downtime annually (Netbeheer).
This makes the sector one of the smallest contributors to carbon emissions compared to other industries. According to figures from the Dutch Emissions Authority (NEA) for 2021-2023, data centers account for only 0.0039% of CO2 emissions from Dutch ETS companies.
With an increasing percentage of the workforce working from home, the Netherlands relies heavily on its digital infrastructure. Millions of home workspaces are facilitated by data centers. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global internet traffic increased by nearly 40% between February and mid-April 2020. This has resulted in clear sustainability benefits: the Netherlands used 10% less energy and emitted 5 million tons less CO2, while the electricity consumption of data centers themselves only increased by 1-4%.
The IEA also found that if everyone who can work from home did so just one day a week, the global CO2 emissions reduction would amount to 24 million tons annually. This is equivalent to the majority of the yearly CO2 emissions of Greater London.
The following energy consumption data by sector is sourced from CBS and is from 2021.
According to the “State of the Digital Infrastructure”, the digital infrastructure sector, including data centers, uses 3.7 million tons of tap water. This accounts for 0.3% of the total tap water consumption in the Netherlands. Of this amount, approximately 1 million tons is used as cooling water for data centers.
In March 2021, PWN reported that in their supply region (North Holland), 0.6% of their total water supply is used as cooling water, not only for data centers but also for other industries. This equates to 672,000 m³ of cooling water for industrial purposes, out of a total of 112 billion liters of drinking water supplied by PWN. By concentrating IT equipment in data centers, cooling becomes significantly more efficient compared to smaller server rooms. Data centers employ various cooling strategies to optimize this efficiency.
There can be no guarantees that fresh water will always be available everywhere. In cases of severe water shortages, water managers follow the “displacement series” (verdringingsreeks) to allocate the available fresh water. The displacement series establishes the hierarchy of societal needs that must be considered when distributing water. Drinking water always takes precedence over water for industrial use. According to the Drinkwaterplatform, it is therefore highly unlikely that data centers could cause a drinking water shortage.
In response to incorrect news reports about alleged competition between data centers and drinking water supply, the ministry reassured Parliament. See the answers to parliamentary questions on this matter from April 12, 2021, and April 22, 2021.
The displacement series consists of four categories. The hierarchy of priorities within categories 1 and 2 is established at the national level. For categories 3 and 4, no national hierarchy is defined; further ranking within (but not between) these categories can be established through provincial regulations. Data centers are classified in category 4, meaning they, like all other sectors in this category, have no impact on the drinking water supply for households (category 2).
This is further detailed in the national “Water Distribution and Drought Handbook” from Rijkswaterstaat (RWS). The displacement series is also included in the Second National Water Management Policy Document. With the implementation of the Water Act, it was legally established for the first time (Article 2.9 of the Water Act and Article 2.1 of the Water Decree).
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