Data-center law in Netherlands

Besluit kwaliteit leefomgeving (Bkl), Sec. 5.1.7.7, artt. 5.161ba-5.161bc

Effective 2024-01-01 · Applies to both

This paragraph applies to a hyperscale datacentrum, defined as operating a computing or data centre within the meaning of Bal article 3.235 whose built floor area exceeds 10 hectares and whose electrical connection capacity is 70 MW or more, including other activities at the same location that functionally support it.

The exclusion area for hyperscale data centres is the whole territory of the Netherlands except for certain locations in the municipalities of Het Hogeland and Hollands Kroon, whose geometric boundary is fixed by ministerial regulation. A municipal omgevingsplan covering the exclusion area may not permit a hyperscale data centre. The Besluit's text in force on 1 January 2024 already carried this restriction.

Source: Full text of law

Omgevingswet, art. 5.1

Effective 2024-01-01 · Applies to both

Article 5.1 prohibits carrying out, without an omgevingsvergunning, an omgevingsplanactiviteit, a rijksmonumentenactiviteit, an ontgrondingsactiviteit, a sea-dumping activity, a Natura 2000-activiteit, a hunting-firearm activity or a falconry activity, unless a governmental order designates the case as exempt.

It separately prohibits, again without an omgevingsvergunning, a bouwactiviteit, a milieubelastende activiteit, a discharge activity to a surface water body or a treatment plant, a water-extraction activity, a mining-location activity, a restricted-area activity or a flora-and-fauna activity, to the extent a governmental order designates the case as permit-requiring.

A data-centre project falls within the second list through the bouwactiviteit and milieubelastende-activiteit limbs, and the Besluit activiteiten leefomgeving, not this article, designates which data-centre cases the permit duty actually reaches.

Source: Full text of law

Energiewet, art. 3.38

Effective 2026-01-01 · Applies to both

A transmission or distribution system operator for electricity must, on request, offer within a reasonable period either a new connection to its system at a suitable point and voltage level or a modification of an existing connection, and must realise the connection within a reasonable period after the offer is accepted.

The operator may refuse to make that offer only for as long as insufficient transport capacity is available on its system for the requested connection, and where it refuses it must take appropriate measures, including necessary expansion investments, to make an offer as soon as possible; the operator's methods or conditions adopted under article 3.119 must state how it determines and substantiates insufficient capacity, what expansion measures it is taking, and what alternatives are reasonably available to the requester.

A data centre seeking a large new connection is therefore subject to this capacity-based refusal rather than to an unconditional connection right.

Source: Full text of law

Besluit activiteiten leefomgeving (Bal), Sec. 5.4.1a, artt. 5.16a-5.17

Effective 2024-05-07 · Applies to both

This paragraph applies to operating a computing or data centre within the meaning of Bal article 3.235 with an installed IT capacity of at least 500 kilowatts, meaning the capacity of the installed information technology and its necessary supporting equipment. It does not apply where the activity is carried out entirely for defence tasks or for disaster response or crisis management.

An operator within scope must collect and publish, for the preceding calendar year, its own name and address, the data centre's name and location, the activity's start date, the installed capacity in kilowatts, the floor area, and data on energy use, water use, waste-heat use, temperature setpoints, renewable-energy use, the volume of data stored and processed, and annual incoming and outgoing data traffic.

Data whose confidentiality is justified under the Wet open overheid are excepted from the duty. The data are to be published by 15 July 2024 and then every year by 15 May. The paragraph is the national vehicle for the data-centre reporting duty the recast EU Energy Efficiency Directive imposes at Union level; the Directive's own delegated reporting regulation and database are not restated here.

Source: Full text of law

Besluit activiteiten leefomgeving (Bal), Sec. 3.7.3, artt. 3.235-3.238

Effective 2024-01-01 · Applies to both

Operating a computing or data centre that supports data traffic or data storage, together with any other environmentally hazardous activity functionally supporting that operation at the same location, is designated a milieubelastende activiteit.

The prohibition on discharging cooling water to a surface water body without an omgevingsvergunning applies to that activity where the discharge carries a thermal load of more than 50 MW; below that threshold the activity instead follows the Bal's general cooling-water and energy-efficiency rules.

An operator must supply the competent authority with the location's boundaries and the expected start date at least four weeks before the activity begins, and again at least four weeks before any change to those boundaries.

Source: Full text of law

Wet inkomstenbelasting 2001, art. 3.42

Applies to private

Where a taxpayer operating a business for their own account invests, in a calendar year, in previously unused business assets that the Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate has, on the taxpayer's request, declared to be energie-investeringen serving efficient energy use, the taxpayer may elect to deduct a percentage of the invested amount from that year's profit. That percentage is 40 percent of the amount invested.

The combined amount of energie-investeringen taken into account per taxpayer per year is capped at 153,000,000 euro. Eligibility turns on the Minister's declaration that the investment is an energie-investering rather than on operating a data centre as such, so a data centre's energy-efficient cooling or power equipment must be separately checked against that declaration.

Source: Full text of law