That is, memory capacity is reserved for datacenters yet to be built, but this will do weird things if said datacenter construction is postponed or cancelled altogether.
It says that in 2025, Netherlands was a net exporter of electricity (~14,000 GWh). My guess: Where they want to build data centers, the grid cannot handle it, but the overall system has more than enough power to build data centers. Do you think that sounds like a resonable guess?
Are the Netherlands a large proportion of global datacenters?
In most other places the percentage is significantly less than that and then you can easily add more of the cheap-but-intermittent stuff because a cloudy day only requires you to make up a 10% shortfall instead of a 50% one, which existing hydro or natural gas plants can handle without new storage when there are more of them to begin with.
What's more common is that they don't have the transmission capacity itself, but that one's pretty easy in this case too, because what that means is that you have an existing transmission line which is already near capacity with generation on one end and customers on the other. So then you just build the data center on the end of the transmission line where the generation is rather than the end where the existing customers are, at which point you can add new generation anywhere you want -- and if you put it near the existing customers you've just freed up transmission capacity because you now have new customers closer to the existing generation and new generation closer to the existing customers.
> The Dutch power grid is already almost 50% renewables
I calculate about 43.5% was solar or wind. What is way crazier is the "bend in the curve" of production sources in the last 10 years. Look here at how fast solar and wind is growing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Netherlands_electricity_g...
In every country? Citation needed.
That's where AWS us-east-1 is, i.e. the oldest AWS region where they got started to begin with. Google and Microsoft also have a large presence there. It's not just the US government, it's everybody, and it's not new.
> How did they do it?
Here's the US nuclear plant map, guess where a bunch of them are:
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=65104
The area around Virginia is also a major coal producer and when this was getting started it was a source of cheap electricity, but coal is quickly being replaced with natural gas via pipelines from the Gulf coast. Their current power mix is ~30% nuclear, ~12% renewables (solar) and almost all the rest natural gas.
That's because you don't live in Maryland.
Our energy bills are through the roof and our transmission company is talking about rolling blackouts in 2027.
https://www.thebanner.com/community/climate-environment/cont...
EDIT
The opening paragraph:
> State regulators’ review of the controversial power line proposed to stretch across three rural Maryland counties will extend to at least February 2027, officials announced Thursday, a timeline that prevents developers from meeting the grid operator’s deadline to ensure reliable electricity.
If demand increases you have to build more generation and power lines etc. This is not a problem but for NIMBYs, it's just the logical consequence. If the local population increases and you don't have enough grocery stores you don't say "grocery stores are stressed" and regard it as an insurmountable problem, people just open more of them.
The value of an IX isn't just in the IX itself, but also in the presence of hundreds of parties for direct peering, and excellent connectivity to the rest of the world.
It makes a lot of sense to build your DC near one - even if you have no intention of actually participating in the IX itself.
They don't need entire IX worth of connectivity. You're sending mostly text back and forth and any media is in far lower volume than even normal far less dense DC would generate, all the major traffic is inside the AI DC.
All it needs is fiber to nearest IX
Had we done more 10 years ago we would have been better of. The second best time to start is now.
Then why all the anti-coal mining diktats coming down from Brussels?
Brussels is trying to reduce "tiny" to zero, because of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
China, like Brussels, is trying to reduce coal for similar reasons. They don't like the air pollution health hazard (fully believable), and they say they don't like global warming (somewhat believable).
Renewables deployment is happening fast. Grid upgrades are not. Batteries .. it depends.
Even nuclear darling France has set solar records: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/04/15/france-germany-set-da...
(We used to build it at a fraction of the cost and less than half of the time that we do with our modern fuckups and fuel can come from just about anywhere if need be. It might be a lot more expensive than the stuff kazachstan and still be a fraction of the cost.)
I think ideally we would've done both to press the cost of nuclear down and given the fact that the renewables rollout turned out to be a lot lot more expensive than proponents claimed it would be whilst still tying us up into gass to cover winter.
The problem in the EU is not renewables, it's the same problem that Democratic states in the US face. Regulations and permitting hurdles that block private renewable energy developers.