At a Slightly Slower Pace: Statistics Netherlands on Data Centers' Electricity in 2024

Statistics Netherlands, the country's statistics office, published figures on December 15, 2025 on the electricity supplied to the country's data centers. In 2024, it says, data centers consumed 5,100 GWh of electricity, 4.6 percent of the Netherlands' total electricity consumption. That, the release says, "corresponds to the annual electricity consumption of nearly 2 million households." There are "approximately 200 data centres in the Netherlands," the release says, most of them around Amsterdam. Parts of the release follow, not the whole.

What the Figures Count

Organizations and institutions such as universities and hospitals, which have their own facilities for large-scale data storage and processing, are not included in the release. Its figures "only relate to electricity connections where the data centre itself is the main activity." In both of its tables, the values for 2024 carry an asterisk.

Growth, and the Large Data Centers

The 2024 total was an increase of 37 percent on 2021, the release says, smaller than the increase between 2018 and 2021, when the electricity supplied to data centers rose by 58 percent. Data centers' share of the country's electricity consumption rose from 3.3 percent in 2021 to 4.6 percent in 2024. In the release's own words, the electricity consumed by data centers "is steadily increasing, albeit at a slightly slower pace than previously."

The increase is mainly seen, the release says, in the group of large data centers, those consuming a total of over 10 GWh. Approximately 45 data centers make up that group, and together they account for around 90 percent of the electricity supplied to data centers. Their number "has remained roughly the same" over the last few years, the release adds, while the total electricity supplied to the group "has increased, as well as their consumption."

Will the number of large data centers in the Netherlands stay roughly the same?