logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2021
18m 21s

The Meta data centre dilemma

Bbc World Service
About this episode

What is at stake when a big company like Meta comes knocking on your door? The small Dutch town of Zeewolde is grappling with this. Meta - the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp - wants to build a huge data centre in the area which could be the biggest in Europe. It is a proposal which has raised questions about land-use, water consumption, political power and energy.

The municipality says it will bring significant benefits – but not everyone agrees. Opponents like local resident Sipke Veentra, say the centre will use five times the amount of energy that their local windmills provide. And local farmer Carla Dekker is concerned that prime agricultural land is being given over to development and is worried about the amount of water Meta will use. They both claim Meta is being given preferential treatment over local businesses. But those in favour, like Egge Jan de Jonge the local cabinet member who is steering the deal through, says Meta will have to provide new power supplies to feed the centre and that they have a proven record of having done this in the past.

Stijn Grove, from the Dutch Data Centre Association says there is no Dutch national strategy and that more political leadership is needed from the top. And Sebastian Moss, who watches the data centre industry for the website DatacenterDynamics says companies face similar challenges to Meta when trying to site hyper-scale data centres all over the world.

(Picture: Data centre; Credit: Getty Images)

Up next
Yesterday
The impact of 'thirsty' data centres
We're in the US state of Georgia, where huge data centres need water to keep cool. But how is this need for cloud storage and AI capability affecting local residents and the environment?Presenter: Michelle Fleury Producer: Nathalie Jimenez(Image: Georgia resident Beverly Morris l ... Show More
17m 50s
Jul 8
Does university still get you a well-paid job?
Graduates are facing one of the toughest jobs markets in decades. We hear from students in India, the US and UK about whether they feel a university or college degree is worth it as we discuss the cost of attending university around the world and what your job prospects might be ... Show More
17m 27s
Jul 7
Returning to Ukraine?
The UN estimates that nearly seven million Ukrainians have left their home country since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Many have set up businesses in their new country - around 90,000 of those in Poland. We hear about the challenges they’ve faced, and the sectors ... Show More
17m 30s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2022
Reality bites for Meta
Social media giant Meta has posted more disappointing results as it struggles to drum up support for its Metaverse concept. Sales and profits are down once again at the Silicon Valley company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. We'll discuss what it means for the wider ... Show More
50m 40s
May 2024
From Facebook to Meta: Zuckerberg's Big Bet—The Future
Since Facebook became Meta in 2021, the company has invested billions of dollars to develop the metaverse to where it is today. But the competitive landscape is changing as companies like Apple come out with their own headsets. Plus, artificial intelligence is becoming a more imp ... Show More
15m 19s
Nov 2022
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg says sorry after big job losses at the tech giant.
The founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg has said sorry after the tech giant laid off more than 11,000 staff 13% of its global workforce. Senior Tech Reporter Kali Hays from Business Insider in Los Angeles gives us her assessment of the move and what it means for the sector. Its i ... Show More
27m 12s
Jul 2023
Has Twitter Meta its match?
Meta is debuting Threads, its riff on Twitter, to rival the legacy social media platform. We’ll get into where the app might sit in today’s social media landscape and question why Meta would want a piece of Twitter’s notoriously unprofitable pie. And, how the U.S. workforce is ch ... Show More
19m 50s
Jan 2021
How Edgevana CEO Mark Thiele is Streamlining The Way Companies Access Data Centers
Mark Thiele has spent his entire life in and around IT infrastructure, even building his own fair share of data centers. But if there is one thing about the entire process that he finds vexing, it’s the wasted time between when companies start negotiating contracts for data cente ... Show More
46m 5s
Jul 2023
Meta Has 3 Billion Users. Now What?
Meta has our attention but will we follow Mark Zuckerberg into the metaverse? (00:21) Asit Sharma and Deidre Woollard discuss: - Meta’s soaring ad impressions amid a tough advertising market. - If Mark Zuckerberg will need to choose between AI and the metaverse. - How Chipotle is ... Show More
33m 22s
Sep 2020
San Francisco County's Jason Lally on Clarity and Better Serving People with Data (pt. 1)
This is Part 2 of our interview with Jason Lally, the Chief Data Officer for the City and County of San Francisco. [Listen to Part 1 here.] In Part 1, Cindi and Jason talked about the kindness of data clarity and the power of a declarative mission statement. In this episode, Jaso ... Show More
27m 53s