A massive new data centre planned for Amsterdam’s western port area will be rented entirely by Microsoft and use as much energy as the city of Haarlem, according to research by the NRC.

The data centre, consisting of three 85 metre high buildings, is being built despite the ban on new data centres within the city boundaries which was introduced because of their demands on the electricity grid.

But the plans for the project were first announced in 2016, before the ban was in place and that means it can now go ahead, the paper said.

The data centre can also get round the 2022 national government ban on the development of more “hyperscales”, or very large data centres, for the same reason.

In addition, according to Noord-Holland province, the fact that the project is split into three towers negates objections about the number of hectares it will take up and the total energy usage.

“From a legal perspective, these three separate data centres… do not meet the criteria for a hyperscale,” the province said in answer to provincial councillor’s questions.

Rick Pijpers, from the Dutch data centre lobby group Nederlandse Soevereine Datacenter Cooperatie said that Microsoft’s grip on the Dutch market is bigger than many people realise.

Six new server farms are being building the Wieringermeerpolder on top the 10 already there. “Everything is going to the Americans and there is hardly any grid capacity left for local data centres, which are so important for Dutch industry and the government,” he said.

In Amsterdam itself plans to build 30,000 homes and 50 schools are under threat because of the shortage of grid capacity and there are “no quick fixes” to change the situation, city officials said at the end of last year.