More data centers needed to satisfy our hunger for AI
The ideas are there, but we really need to get moving, says Stijn Grove, Managing Director at the Dutch Data Center Association
Published on May 2, 2025
The power grid is becoming increasingly congested. And the consequences are being felt in the economy and society, especially for large consumers such as data centers. Growth is not as easy as it should be, and new entrepreneurship is extremely complex. AI's energy hunger plays a decisive role in this. According to the recent 'special report' by the International Energy Agency (IEA), Energy and AI, global electricity demand from data centers will more than double by 2030 to around 945 terawatt hours (TWh), more than Japan's total electricity consumption at present.
The Netherlands has around 200 data centers, which are essential to our digital infrastructure and economy. More data centers are needed to strengthen the digital society, if only to continue to satisfy our hunger for AI applications. The European Commission's action plans for “European leadership in AI” are otherwise unworkable, warns Stijn Grove, Managing Director at Dutch Data Center Association, the trade association for data centers in the Netherlands. “The plans are great, but there has to be room on the network.”
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The search for space is ongoing on many fronts. Network operator Tennet, for example, has announced plans to free up around 9.1 gigawatts of hidden network capacity. This will be achieved by using quiet hours, such as at night or early in the morning, when little power is used anyway. Grove: “As data centers, we cannot scale down for 15% of the time. That is only possible if a data center can produce its power in the long term. An average data center has a capacity of around 15-20 megawatts, which requires an equally large battery park to supply power for just one hour. That is not feasible.”
Sector deals
The Ministry of Climate and Green Growth is also looking for solutions. Last November, the first Sector Deal on Network Congestion was published between the government, network operators, and the water authorities. The second followed at the end of March, with the public transport sector.
The water boards need more and more energy, grid connections, and transport capacity to keep the Netherlands dry and purify sewage. With the sector deal, grid operators and water boards are making agreements to find solutions. For public transport, the continuity and sustainable growth of public transport are central, and the agreements must contribute to the national energy transition by limiting network congestion.
Sovereign cloud
As a trade association, the Dutch Data Center Association, together with network operators, including Tennet, has drawn up a letter of intent to also reach a sector deal. “Our letter of intent has been with the ministry for about five months now,” says Grove. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Climate and Green Growth responded as follows: “We are in talks with various sectors about ways to reduce the load on the power grid, and data centers are indeed one of them. We are still investigating whether data centers can play a role in this. We are not currently working toward a sector agreement with data centers, as we recently did with the public transport sector.”
According to Grove, the call for sovereign clouds, among other things, contributes to the need for growth. Within a sovereign cloud, data is 100% controlled, managed, and monitored independently, on Dutch soil and within Dutch law and regulations. “This means we are not dependent on American and Chinese clouds.” In light of the AI debate, this is also an essential requirement.
Grove is working with the sector on various solutions to alleviate or avoid congestion in both the short and long term. “We believe that these measures could free up around one gigawatt of space.”
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View Watt Matters in AI SeriesPlanning smarter
Think of generating power with hydrogen or gas-powered turbines. This is a solution that the Dutch Data Center Association is investigating with Tennet. “Currently, every data center has an alternating current generator as an emergency power supply. If we replace these in new data centers with gas turbines, which we can eventually run on hydrogen, we will be truly flexible in the long term.”
Another option is to make more efficient use of transformers that adjust the voltage from the grid to the needs of the equipment in the data center. “There are often two, but in some data centers, one is sufficient. That saves on infrastructure and creates space. Or you could connect them to the medium-voltage grid instead of the high-voltage grid.”
With smart planning, the residual heat from data centers can be used to heat homes or greenhouses, Grove continues. “This allows us to create smart chains in which green energy first goes to the data center, and the heat released in the process goes to homes or greenhouses. This is a different way of thinking about the energy system, from multiple perspectives: urban planning, energy planning, and economic planning. We need to bring everything together in a smarter way.”
Greener above all
On April 9, Eric Schmidt explained the impact of AI to Congress. The former CEO of Google spoke about the threat posed by China, but above all about the enormous task facing data centers and the gigantic amount of energy they require. According to Grove, Schmidt is right to point out the explosive growth in digital and energy demand. “The Dutch data center sector fully recognizes this urgency. As a sector, however, we believe that this growth must go hand in hand with our climate goals, the energy transition, and the trust of society.”
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“Our focus is not on building mega-scale data centers that run on any energy source. The Netherlands is particularly suited to using existing AI models and not to training huge AI models.” The latter requires an enormous amount of energy and space. When using existing models, no mega data centers are needed, and energy consumption is lower. The industry association is aiming for smart upscaling, says Grove: “Maximum efficiency, smart integration into the energy system, and a direct contribution to local communities.”
Momentum
The ideas are there, but they really need to be put into action, says Grove. “The whole discussion about a sovereign cloud is completely irrelevant at the moment, because there is no room for parties that need the network continuously. As Europe, we are really lagging behind America and China. It has become a geopolitical game, and we now need to pick up the pace. We urgently call for accelerated expansion of the power grid and faster licensing procedures — but always within a framework of sustainability and social added value.”
Grove welcomes the EU's introduction of regulations that will make it easier to build data centers, “but that requires power.” Everything is interconnected: “We simply have to work faster, smarter, and with greater urgency on multiple fronts.”
