Data centres consume 4.6 percent of the Netherlands’ electricity

© Hollandse Hoogte / Olivier Middendorp Fotografie
In 2024, data centres consumed 5,100 GWh of electricity, which is 4.6 percent of the Netherlands' total electricity consumption. This corresponds to the annual electricity consumption of nearly 2 million households. It shows that the electricity consumed by data centres is steadily increasing, albeit at a slightly slower pace than previously. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of newly released figures.

There are approximately 200 data centres in the Netherlands, most of which are located around Amsterdam. There are different types of data centres: in addition to the large centres owned by cloud providers and tech companies, organisations and institutions such as universities and hospitals also have their own facilities for large-scale data storage and processing. The latter group is not included in this news release; these figures only relate to electricity connections where the data centre itself is the main activity.

The electricity supplied to these data centres was 5,100 GWh in 2024, an increase of 37 percent compared to 2021. The percentage relative to the total electricity consumed in the Netherlands rose from 3.3 percent in 2021 to 4.6 percent in 2024. This increase is smaller than the increase seen between 2018 and 2021, when the electricity supplied to data centres increased by 58 percent.

Mainly large data centres consume more electricity 

The increase in the electricity supplied to data centres is mainly seen in the group of large data centres consuming a total of over 10 GWh. This group of approximately 45 data centres collectively accounts for around 90 percent of the total electricity supplied to data centres. Over the last few years, the number of larger data centres has remained roughly the same, but the total electricity supplied to this group has increased, as well as their consumption.