Plans For Facebook's Zeewolde Data Center Finally Comes To an End

Facebook has finally announced that it has canceled its plans for the Zeewolde data center. This move comes after it first announced a pause to the project in March. The data center was poised to be largest data center in the Netherlands. Facebook’s plan was to develop a 200MW data center across five data halls. The company first announced plans for the data center in 2021. However, shortly after its announcement, the Netherland government banned the construction of new data centers in the Flevoland Province where the data center was planned.

Officials of the Zeewolde town initially approved the development of the data center on the proposed land. However, the Dutch Senate stopped the sale of a part of the land planned for the data center because it belongs to the government. In addition, earlier in march, Dutch lawmakers voted to stop Facebook from carrying out any site preparation to decide whether or not to sell the land. Finally, the Senate decided not to sell the land in April.

After the decision by the Senate, Facebook said it would review its options. However, it has now decided to officially cancel the project. Facebook said: "When considering a location for a data center, our priority is a good match with the environment. Ultimately, we decided that building a data center in Zeewolde is not the right investment."