Denmark's data-centre backlash claims a 350 MW project as Holbæk halts planning

31/10/2026

Abstract illustration of green Danish farm fields with a grey block-shaped building partly outlined in dashed lines, power lines and small candle lights

After a citizens' petition and a packed council meeting, the ruling Social Democrats in Holbæk have withdrawn support for one of Denmark's largest planned hyperscale data centres and want all planning stopped until the government publishes a national data-centre strategy. The developer says the decision rests on wrong facts and plans to carry on.

A Danish municipality has pulled its political backing for one of the country's largest planned data centres, the latest sign that local resistance is starting to shape where Europe's AI infrastructure can be built.

At a council meeting in Holbæk, west of Copenhagen, on Wednesday evening, Eva Anker Lund, the Social Democrat who chairs the municipality's planning and business committee, said her party would recommend that "we stop all planning of a data centre in Holbæk Municipality" (translated), DR reported. The Social Democrats hold 18 of the council's 31 seats, so the project, developed by contractor EMCH, has lost its majority, according to NB-Forsyning & Klima.

The planned hyperscale site, on fields between Holbæk's ring road and the town's sports complex, has been described by NB-Forsyning and Computerworld Danmark as a 350-megawatt facility with up to 150,000 square metres of floor space. Computerworld reported that it could increase the municipality's electricity consumption sixfold. DR put its power draw at up to 240 MW at full build-out in 2034; the reports do not explain the difference between the two figures.

A petition that moved a majority

The turnaround was triggered by a citizens' proposal from the local climate group Ét Grønt Holbæk, which has campaigned against the project for nine months. It passed the required 500 signatures within a week and had more than 1,100 by Wednesday, according to DR. Close to 100 residents attended the meeting with banners and hand-painted signs.

Lund said the council did not want to "steamroll this decision over the citizens" (translated) and argued that data centres should be planned nationally rather than decided town by town. The committee will discuss the proposal next week, and the full council is due to take a final decision on 18 November.

EMCH is not giving up. "We will continue the work," Jesper Cordsen, the company's head of sales and marketing, told DR (translated). He said the council's decision rests on a "factually incorrect" basis and that local opposition reflects "a wrong perception of what a data centre is" (translated), adding that EMCH had designed the site to reuse waste heat. He nonetheless called a pause until the national strategy arrives "sensible enough" (translated).

A national movement and a strategy due by year-end

Holbæk is not an isolated case. DR lists Køge, Odsherred, Varde and Hørsholm among municipalities where politicians have taken protests against data centres seriously. In Tinghøj, north of Varde, residents oppose a planned Microsoft campus of five halls, each 500 metres long and 32 metres high; Computerworld reported on 20 October that Varde wants the minister to decide on the Microsoft project. Near Nakskov on Lolland, one of two proposed projects would have a capacity of one gigawatt, against Denmark's peak electricity demand of about seven gigawatts, according to DR, citing grid operator Energinet.

Activists from Holbæk and Varde have now founded Folkebevægelsen Stop Datacentre (People's Movement Stop Data Centres). Its three demands are a cap on hyperscale data centres, Danish or European ownership, and public disclosure of each site's power and water use and electricity prices. "It's a gold rush right now" (translated), spokesperson Søren Bak Sommer told DR.

Industry association Datacenter Industrien estimates that Denmark has about 55 data centres, and engineering weekly Ingeniøren has mapped 29 more in the pipeline, DR reported. In the spring the government's grid emergency plan moved data centres to the back of the queue for connections. Business minister Martin Lidegaard is drafting a national data-centre strategy, expected around the turn of the year, that will assess the need for new sites, who should build them and where they fit the grid and renewable supply.

That strategy now carries more weight. Holbæk's committee chair says the council would follow national guidance if it required municipalities to set aside land for data centres. Until then, developers in one of Europe's most sought-after locations for green-powered computing face an increasingly organised opposition.