Switch Datacenters, the municipality of Uithoorn, a collective of dozens of greenhouse growers and grid operator Liander signed a heat-network agreement in the week of 29 July for a planned facility at De Kwakel-Kudelstaart1. Uithoorn sits under provincial rule NH2020, which bars data centres above 2,000 square metres or 5 MVA in this area. MVA, or megavolt-amperes, is the apparent-power rating of a grid connection.
The planned site has a 60 MVA connection, roughly 42 to 50 MW of IT capacity, and reuses an existing logistics building. Twelve times the permitted threshold, in other words, on a rule nobody has moved to amend.
The exception rests on public-interest grounds. Waste heat from the servers displaces gas the growers currently burn to warm their glasshouses, and Switch Datacenters argues the scheme relieves rather than adds to local grid congestion2. First-phase delivery is projected 12 to 18 months after permitting. Dutch greenhouse horticulture is among the most gas-intensive activities in the country, which is what gives the argument its force: the heat has a buyer waiting, at scale, next door.
A ban in force since 2020 is being worked around from inside, by agreement, without a court or a provincial vote. Pure DC did something structurally similar in Dublin, building a microgrid that let it comply and stay where others gave up and left. Where Ofgem attaches a deposit and PJM attaches a premium, Uithoorn extracts payment in kind. The developer buys its way past the rule by handing the surrounding economy something it wants, which is a cheaper currency than cash and a good deal harder for the next council to replicate on demand.
