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SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY Council will use excess heat from Amazon’s new data centre in Tallaght to warm nearby homes and businesses in Ireland’s first public system based around one of the power-hungry facilities.
The local authority recently called for expressions of interest in a multimillion-euro contract to design, build and operate the ‘South Dublin District Heating System’.
A district heating system captures waste heat that is then redistributed to homes and premises around an area for functions such as central or water heating.
Using “low-grade waste heat” from Amazon’s site at the old Jacob’s biscuit factory on Belgard Road, the heating will be supplied through an energy centre designed and installed by the cloud computing giant as part of its planning approval for the data centre.
A not-for-profit called South Dublin DH Company will be set up by the council and tasked with the management and future development of the district heating system.
According to a report published by data centre industry group Host In Ireland, the project will be the first of its kind on these shores.
The scheme will provide heating to South Dublin County Council buildings as well as a new residential development made up of 1,200 apartments and 339 student accommodation units, which is currently in the planning process.
Properties in the area dubbed ‘Phase 1′ that are deemed “economically feasible to connect” will also be hooked up to the district heating system. This area includes Tallaght Hospital buildings.
Click here to view a larger version
Funding
It is estimated the heating system will reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the area by nearly 1,900 tonnes every year.
South Dublin council said the project will decrease emissions associated with fossil fuels and “establish Tallaght as a leader in innovation in the area of climate change”.
The capital investment required to connect and supply all guaranteed customers in Phase 1 and provide capacity for future connections is estimated to be €4.9 million.
This will be either be entirely funded by South Dublin County Council or as part of a co-investment with an energy service company.
The project will also receive funding from the EU’s HeatNet programme, a near-€7 million fund for schemes that reduce CO2 emissions in Europe’s north-west.
The council estimated the value of the advertised contract to build and maintain the district heating system is between €5.8 million and €7 million.
If additional customers are connected and supplied over a 10-year period, the contract term is estimated to be worth up €14.8 million.
Planning approval
Amazon was granted planning permission in August to build the two-storey, 23,283 sq m data centre on lands that previously housed a Jacob’s biscuit factory.
One of 23 conditions attached to the planning permission included the provision of an energy centre to collect and redistribute excess heat into the local area.
South Dublin County Council’s decision was initially objected by Irish Life, but the pension fund later withdrew its An Bord Pleanála appeal.
There are currently 48 data centres in operation in Ireland, mostly in the greater Dublin area.
According to previous reports, investment in Irish facilities has surged in recent years and is expected to surpass the €1 billion mark this year, significantly driving up energy demand across the country.
A July report by Host In Ireland recommended the introduction of Nordic-style district heating systems using excess energy from data centre developments.
Data centres typically consume large amounts of power to run and cool the computer servers they house.
The masterplan for a separate Amazon facility in Dublin, for example, could require as much energy as a small city at times of peak demand.
Written by Conor McMahon and posted on Fora.ie
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Galileo was under house arrest for saying that the Earth revolved around the Sun, it’s not the best idea IMO to ban free speech, science is a ‘community of knowledge’ best served by keeping contrary opinions in plain view to be argued and defended
@Spartacus Ireland: so you think flat earthers are right? Galileo could and did back up his opinion with actual data, what they are “censoring” is incorrect and rage news/data with zero scientific evidence
@Spartacus Ireland: there is a difference between 2 opposing scientific positions and vested interests taking out adds to sow seeds of doubt, with no/ misrepresented scientific evidence.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: The issue is with censorship of ideas, because they dont fit with the current position of those in control of the censorship, not if those ideas can be supported with data.
In Galileo’s time his knowledge, his data and his ability to explain it was irrelevant, because those in control of the censorship of ideas didn’t want to hear him, simply because it didn’t fit with their preferred position on reality at the time.
Now more than ever, resources are available to explore any topic and with just a little bit of time anyone can formulate an opinion of their own, the only people that can’t differentiate between plausible arguments and gibberish, are those that adopt the positions they are given by others without question and censorship won’t stop them being thick.
Its also easy to support censorship when you think it will promote the views that you support, but if you imaging for a moment that the mechanisms of censorship that you would now happily support, at some point in the future fell under the control of the people that you despise the most and allowed them to not only exclude your science based views and promote their own crackpot views without challenge, would you still support the mechanisms of censorship in those circumstances, if not, then logically you shouldn’t support them now either.
@David Van-Standen: a private company choosing not to publish or take revenue for content that does not align with their views or terms and conditions is not censorship of free speech. It is exercising a private companies right to have terms and conditions. Unfortunately the thickos who whinge about free speech don’t actually understand what free speech is.
@David Van-Standen: I’m against censorship but when people/organisations knowingly push fake information then that has to be stopped
@Spartacus Ireland: the church condemned him …. .the church!!!!!. Because they knew better and their book said otherwise. Zero science nor facts nor studies nor research to back up proof of what they just knew what was right.
@Rmaybe: When all tech companies such as search engines, social media platforms, forums and media outlets apply a uniform censorship policy, which aligns with the aims and objectives of those in power, its censorship by definition.
This across the board application of a good information censorship policy, undermines the premise that these are just private companies independently exercising autonomy.
Free speech is the principle that individuals or groups of people have the right to express their views, without fear of retaliation, censorship or legal sanctions against them.
People holding or expressing views which are unsupported by data or just incorrect, isn’t something which requires censorship, people should be free to believe whatever they choose.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: We have given religions a pass on that requirement and we all get to choose if we want to believe or not, why should any other unsupported beliefs be held to a higher standard than religious doctrines?
If you are against censorship, then you should appreciate the slippery slope, that any adoption of censorship however well intentioned, ultimately end up being misused as a device of oppression.
Critical thinking and exploring ideas and postions around issues, is being incrementally replaced with prescribed good information sanctioned beliefs, any deviation from which labels you as a radical, dissident or conspiracy theorist, there are numerous historical parallels to highlight the dangers, but we don’t teach history, so few people actually notice…
@Spartacus Ireland: Galileo was correct, climate deniers are wrong.
@David Van-Standen: the problem is that climate science denial mostly exists because of funding by vested interests
@DJ François: Well now you have a strong opinion on that, have you read the research papers or are you trusting the IPCC ?
Personally I’m far from convinced by the research I have examined, we are at the tail end of an ice age after all. However I do agree with most of the things being done, I just think that they’re important even if the climate is completely unaffected by us, which seems unlikely.
It’s not that I don’t think we affect.the climate, it’s that I don’t think we understand and can model it anything like as well as is claimed.
Still politicians need simple stories before taking large actions and I do agree that those are needed.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: I understand the science. Deniers are on the wrong side of history.
@Donal McCarthy: That’s not the problem, thats reality and the very same reality exists around the proposed solutions to the climate change, reducing the harmful impacts of current practices on the environment and moving to alleged greener options.
Vested interests that will profit from those outcomes, fund their own propaganda that pushes the positives and conceals the negatives.
The vested interest funding behind these various campaigns is to sway the majority that can’t be bothered to look beyond the soundbites, look at the so called good information entities globally, they are all funded directly or indirectly, by Billionaires and hedge funds that have a financial stake in particular outcomes, that make it worth their while to spend tens of millions of Euros…
@David Van-Standen: but they aren’t planning on censoring ideas and opinions just fake information/news, big difference between the two.
EU law protects your right to express an opinion so the minute they try and truly censor than you can take legal action
Censorship?
@Dave Barrett: yes censoring fake opinions backed up by zero fact
@Dave Barrett: Explain how banning lies that there is no credible evidence for is censorship? The fact of climate change is supported by every scientific organisation on the planet. There is not a shred of credible evidence for the position of climate change denial.
@Dave Barrett: nope!
@Jim Buckley Barrett: just like your comment
@John Johnes: that from a guy that hides behind a fake account…
Wow
@Jim Buckley Barrett:
Jim you sound like the kind of person that would still take Rennies for ulcers and give thalidomide to pregnant women to get over their morning sickness
@Stephen Gill:
Except that f you read the early WMO reports they in fact show that the climate can only have warmed if you believe they got it wrong then or can quite conceivably have gotten it wrong now.
WMO 1979
“The probability, nevertheless, is that the surface temperature of the Earth (at present near 288 deg K or 15 deg C) has not greatly changed over a period of 2 x 10^9 years.” https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=8346
Page 57
The current estimate last published by the WMO is 14.9 C
Put that in your science denying pipe and smoke it.
Science “we used to be wrong about stuff but now we are right all the time about everything and dont even question it”
@Bobby mcgee: that is literally the opposite of science and shows your complete lack off how it works.
Scientists will bend over backwards to pour doubt on their own findings and the whole peer-review process is there to validate ideas.
Yes, they get stuff wrong but the difference between them and crackpot is the latter just have entrenched views and fight back against anyone who points our their nonsense.
@Fozz: That is how science is supposed to work, this is the current understanding of X based on the available data, until such time as new information is discovered or a theory is put forward that presents the available data in a better way than the current form.
The issue is, that those that have the power to dictate, censor, or silence dissenting voices and are continuously trying to extend that control to all platforms online and they now present science and scientific consensus as an absolute, unchanging and written in stone, that is not allowed to be questioned in anyway and even when new data is presented, or scientific consensus shifts, they just choose to ignore it, or seek to suppress it, by labelling it as misinformation.
@Fozz:
Peer reviews this for us:
Last year the WMO, using 5 datasets, said the global average temperature of the Earth was 14.9°C
In 2010 NASA said it was 15°C
NOAA to this day reports the global average temperature was 16.9°C in 1997
In 1990 the IPCC said it was 15°C
In 1988 Dr Hansen of NASA said the 1950-1980 period was 15°C (59 F)
So to recap; The average global temp has warmed from 1950 to present by -0.1C yet the graph of the temperature anomaly shows warming of +1.2C.
@Credalytics ☘️: any links for this?
@Credalytics ☘️: also the 1.2C increase is from 1850 not 1950
Yes besides Gestapo, nanny police and PC police now we must have climate police.
Yey, go Twitte!
@Stan Papusa: do you think the Irish independent allow any old add to be taken out in their paper or do you think they are vetted to make sure they meet certain standards?
@Stan Papusa: Says you logged in through twitter just to troll. Their platform, their rules. I thought everyone knew that by now.
@Stan Papusa: I invoke Godwin
@Paul Furey: Troll? I guess it takes one to know one!
That aside, you seem to think that the freedom of speech & thought should exclude claims that merely “defy” the science of the day. Good then, can we do away with alternative medicine (incl homeopathy and acupuncture), paranormal “science”, religion, and all legislation based on anything else other than scientific facts?
It’s paid adverts they’te banning not censoring discusion.
However I think that a better stance would be a blanket ban on adverts about climate change whatever they say about it.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: Censorship of discussion on any issue, would be a direct attack on free speech and the expression of ideas that are outside the preferred narrative on any subject and the online equivalent of book burning and beating dissidents.
But censorship doesn’t need to be overt and direct to be effective, it can but covert and indirect.
For example, if all mention of Ukraine was banned from the Internet and all media outlets for the next seven news cycles, the media and Internet would soon be filled with other topics, one of which would gain priority and fill all of the media and online discussion time that the invasion of Ukraine does currently, in fact it just happened in realtime, when the global focus shifted from covid19 to the invasion of Ukraine…
Censorship is a creeping cancer that slowly eats away at freedom of speech and freedom of expression itself, unseen until its too late and for those directly impacted, until it seems like there was no before and will be no after, in which any other contradictory views can exist without fear of sanction.
@David Van-Standen: Sure but they’re not censoring discussion, they’re applying editorial bias to the advertising they accept. That’s hardly unusual in the publishing world.
I think it’s a poor decision, and a better stance would be to refuse all advertising on contentious.issues thus adopting a neutral position. Instead they’re adopting a pro climate change action stance.
Either way it’s not censorship.
For that look to what Google decides not to show in search.results.
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