Switch Datacenters
Dutch data-centre developer that bought its way past a Uithoorn building ban with a heat-network deal.
Switch Datacenters signed a heat-network agreement with Uithoorn, a greenhouse growers' collective and grid operator Liander in the week of 29 July 2026, letting a planned 60 MVA site proceed despite a provincial ban on data centres above 5 MVA there.
Last refreshed: 4 August 2026
How did Switch Datacenters get around a Dutch building ban on new data centres?
Timeline for Switch Datacenters
Signed the heat-network agreement enabling a 60 MVA site under a standing provincial ban
Data Centres: Boom and Backlash: A Dutch village trades heat for a banBackground
Switch Datacenters is a Dutch data-centre developer. In the week of 29 July 2026 it agreed to supply waste heat from a planned facility at De Kwakel-Kudelstaart to a collective of greenhouse growers, in return for the site proceeding under provincial rule NH2020, which otherwise bars data centres above 2,000 square metres or 5 MVA in the area.
For Switch, the arrangement makes waste heat the currency that buys local consent: the planned site carries a 60 MVA grid connection, roughly 42 to 50 MW of IT capacity, and reuses an existing logistics building rather than new-build land. Nothing in current reporting establishes when the company was founded, who owns it, or where else it operates; this page will grow as further coverage lands.