Ireland is a favourite location for many international companies due to its low taxes. Big Tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Meta are investing heavily in new infrastructure here. This also includes the expansion of data centres. This is also being fuelled by the boom in AI solutions. The trend towards streaming videos and music is also creating a growing demand for computing power worldwide.
Ireland is a good location for data centres thanks to its cool, temperate climate. In addition, the location is suitable for complying with existing data protection regulations such as the GDPR based on its location in the EU.
However, the rapid expansion of data centres poses a major problem for Ireland, as the country’s energy requirements for servers and other IT infrastructure will grow significantly in the coming years – and are already very high. There are currently around 80 large data centres in Ireland, which can be as big as a football field. 30 more are to be added in the near future.
The Irish government’s energy and climate plan states that by 2027, the energy requirements of data centres in the country could account for 31 percent of total demand – almost a third. In 2023, the energy demand of data centres already amounted to 21 percent. This share was higher than that of all urban households in the country combined, which accounted for a total of 18 per cent of demand. By comparison, data centres account for just three percent of total energy consumption in the EU as a whole.
At present, housing in Ireland consumes 28 per cent of energy – urban and rural regions combined. Assuming that this proportion does not change by 2027, the energy requirements of data centres would then exceed those of residences in the country.
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Potential problems with energy supply and sustainability
As energy consumption increases, so does the risk of power outages, which can affect the entire Irish population. Data centres are particularly demanding and have to run around the clock. This is why gas is often still used as an energy source. However, this contradicts Ireland’s plans to switch to a carbon-neutral energy supply. By 2023, 80 per cent of electricity is to come from renewable energy sources. The plan is to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. In 2022, around 50 per cent of the electricity was still generated using gas.
IT corporations under obligation
Data centre operators therefore have a duty to contribute to a sustainable energy supply. This can be done, for example, by installing wind power or photovoltaic systems on site. Local storage options for electricity are also important.
Big tech companies seem to have recognised this: Google, for example, wants to use 100 per cent CO2-free energy by 2030. Amazon has built its own wind farm and Microsoft is also pursuing ambitious goals.
Only scarce information about the data centres
The publicly available information on the data centres in Ireland is poor. For example, it is unclear how many jobs have been created as a result. What is obvious, however, is that most of the data centres are located around Dublin, which is also due to the technical infrastructure available there. However, the power grid there is overloaded, meaning that there is currently a de facto moratorium on the construction of new data centres in the region.
What’s next for Ireland?
It would be important to have an overarching strategy for the further development of data centres, in which, for example, suitable locations are identified. The still sparsely populated west of Ireland would be attractive if additional undersea data cables were installed. Offshore wind farms could provide the energy for these data centres.
The waste heat from data centres can be used to supply energy – for example through district heating networks. This is already being practised in a suburb south of Dublin. Here, the heat generated by an Amazon data centre is used to supply various buildings and facilities. Expansion would probably be easy due to the dense population in the region.
This problem does not only hit Ireland
The growing energy demand of data centres does not only affect Ireland. In other regions of the world, too, expansion is causing problems. One example is the USA. The state of Virginia has the highest density of data centres in the world, and more are being added. Here, too, the question of energy supply and sustainability arises.
Growth without limits?
How can this problem be solved? While the expansion of renewable energies and the creation of additional solutions for electricity storage are certainly indispensable, it is worth questioning whether the constant expansion of capacities makes sense at all. The increase in demand for computing power may slow down in the near future – for example due to economic developments or oversaturation of the market. In order to avoid creating overcapacity, such developments must be taken into account.
Joint projects between companies should also be considered. They could share capacities and thus achieve better utilisation of existing resources instead of creating silos.
Not forgetting Green IT approaches such as longer product life cycles for the hardware used or efficient cooling systems
