The Zeewolde municipality in the Netherlands has announced the intention to expand the existing Trekkersveld business park, which includes a hyperscale data centre as well. What’s worth mentioning is that it is touted to be the largest data centre in Europe. And, it is claimed reportedly that a major American tech giant (social networking giant Facebook) is behind this data centre in Zeewolde will be used for its ambitious plans.
Largest data centre in farming land!
The Baardmeesweg region is characterised by vast meadows with farms and windmills with a majority of dairy farmers. If it’s a global tech giant that has acquired this piece of land, then this look will no more be its identity next year. Word is that the first shovel for the largest data centre in Europe likely to be built in an area of nearly 166 hectares should go into the ground for the same.
As per a report, of the four farmers (wish to remain anonymous) who are told that they can sell their lands to the American company, one states that there isn’t any choice. They revealed that earlier this year, four Baardmeesweg households were gathered in a room and addressed by an employee (whose first name they know) from the American company in question.
A look at the infrastructure
Whichever company it is, it is going to soon turn the beautiful meadows into a slew of mega lifeless buildings. And, the building is said to have a single access road. Given that data centres have to be well secured, a single access road is essential to keep trespassers at the bay and the stored data highly secure.
These spaces are too clean as nothing should affect the servers. And, only authorised personnel can enter the same and select people can enter specific compartments. All movements will be secured with cameras and solar energy power these buildings with panels at the rooftops.
If Facebook is behind this data centre in Zeewolde, then it will be a mega one, which will store data in its own servers. This is what Google does in Eemshaven. Afterall, data centres comprise of rows of cabinets and servers. These data centres have a lot of equipment to ensure both storage and fast connection. Also, there will be numerous fans to prevent the servers from overheating apart from the presence of heavy batteries and generators.
Changes it will bring to employment
Europe’s largest data centre in Zeewolde will employ over 2,000 construction employees. And, several hundreds of people will be employed in the building after its opening for various purposes such as cleaning, technical issues and regular maintenance. Probably, American workers might also find work in the Netherlands through a majority of them will be from the country itself.
Access roads hint at Facebook
The single access road that leads to the data centre in Zeewolde hints that it could belong to Facebook. The drawing by Zeewolde municipality shows an access road that is unusual and curved. Notably, this is the same access route that exists at a large data centre in Ohio. As it appears to be a copy of the one that is in Ohio, it looks like it is Facebook that intends to open the largest data centre in Europe. However, there is no official word from Facebook regarding the same.
Stock photo from sdecoret/Shutterstock
