Protests push Holbæk to seek halt to data centre plans

Holbæk’s Social Democrats will recommend stopping all planning for a hyperscale data centre in the municipality, after residents’ protests prompted politicians to reconsider the project, DR reported.

Nearly 100 residents attended Wednesday’s municipal council meeting at the Old Town Hall in Holbæk, bringing banners and hand-painted signs. One read: “Data centres steal our clean air and green electricity.”

The proposed centre would be built between the ring road and Holbæk Sports City and would multiply the municipality’s electricity consumption. The residents’ petition against the project gathered more than the required 500 signatures in a week and had passed 1,100 by Wednesday.

Eva Anker Lund, chair of the municipality’s Planning and Business Committee and a Social Democrat, said her party believes decisions about data centres should be made nationally rather than by individual municipalities. She said planning should stop until a national strategy is in place, a view shared by a majority of the council.

The petition’s organiser, Emil Brix, said residents were pleased by the broad support at the meeting. Another resident, Benitta Wöhlk, said she was not opposed to a data centre in principle, but argued that it should be built only when needed and planned without placing the burden on residents.

Anker Lund said she could not rule out a data centre being built in Holbæk in the future, depending on the national strategy’s recommendations. The Planning and Business Committee will consider the petition and project next week. Social Democrats will recommend dropping the project, with a final decision due at a municipal council meeting on 18 November.