Microsoft and Google are refusing to make public the energy consumption levels of their Dutch data centers despite EU obligations.

According to reporting from NRC, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, RVO) received blank forms or no data at all from the hyperscalers. Despite the European Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) requiring companies to report their energy and water consumption annually from 2024 onwards, the Dutch government has no legal means to request the actual figures.

The EED requires all data centers with 500kW of installed IT capacity to report power and water usage to national authorities by May 15, 2026, at the latest. However, compliance with the directive has been limited at best, with only 104 of 160 data centers in the Dutch market making a submission to date. Of the 104, 27 left crucial fields blank, with all but three being American company-owned facilities.

Responding to the reports, Google said that it does not share data due to “business confidentiality, as stipulated in the European directive.” Microsoft claimed that the reporting “meets the requirements, carefully balancing transparency, security, and business confidentiality.”

While RVO admitted that the hyperscalers were not required to submit commercially sensitive information in 2024, they will have to do so for 2025.

Both Google and Microsoft made major announcements in the Dutch market last year. In September, Microsoft acquired 50 hectares of land to expand its data center in the municipality of Hollands Kroon, Middenmeer, which is north of Amsterdam.

Following this, in November, Google officially launched a new data center in Winschoten, Groningen. The cloud company has two other data centers in the country: Eemshaven, which opened in 2018, and Middenmeer, which opened in 2020. The company has also bought land at the Westpoort industrial estate located west of Hoogkerk, in the municipality of Groningen, for a data center, which broke ground in April 2024.

There are growing concerns in the Netherlands that it could lose its position as a crucial data center hub due to power and land constraints. In November, Dutch bank ING warned that grid congestion, space constraints, and criticism over energy consumption are hampering growth opportunities for data center expansion in the country.