No less than 90% of Dutch people use the internet every day. We all want to continue Netflixing, streaming music, zooming and apping. As a result, the amount of data used will grow – possibly up to twenty times as much by 2030. Ever-expanding data centers are already finding it increasingly difficult to integrate into the energy system and landscape. Critical materials are also becoming increasingly scarce.

Digital infrastructures have to deal with massive amounts of data. High bandwidth data transfers, affordable data plans, cloud migrations and the increasing popularity of streaming services mean data consumption is growing at unprecedented rates. While over the past few decades the energy efficiency of computing hardware has drastically improved and software performance and usability have become far more effective, they still cannot keep up with demand. The growing energy needs of ICT are especially important in the Netherlands - a prominent European 'data hub' distributed over a relatively small geographic area.