FIVE YEARS AGO, The Journal reported on government plans to make Ireland the data centre capital of the world. Other countries would still have a stronger case for that title, but there’s no doubt that the Irish market has seen massive growth.

There are now around 70 data centres in Ireland, with tech giants such as Amazon, Facebook and Google all having storage facilities here. Host in Ireland, an industry group, said in a report last year that ten new centres had become operational in the previous 12 months alone. Some €7 billion was spent on building facilities between 2010 and 2020, according to its estimates, with another €7 billion expected to be invested in the five-year period up to 2026.

Ireland’s attractions include a low corporate tax rate, a strong data protection regime, a common law system, and a relatively mild climate. Government officials insist there are huge benefits for Ireland as well, and not just in terms of jobs in construction and maintenance.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar recently argued that companies with Irish data facilities are much more likely to bring and keep other operations here, describing data as “a really valuable commodity, like gold or diamonds”.

The problem is that these facilities need a huge amount of energy – as much as a large town in some cases. Recent CSO data shows that electricity consumption by data centres rose by 144% between 2015 and 2020, an increase said to be due to a combination of existing centres using more electricity and new ones being added to the grid. EirGrid has predicted that data centres will account for 29% of the country’s power demand by 2028, up from 11% in 2020.

Professor Barry McMullin of DCU says a growing data centre sector will only complicate efforts to rapidly decarbonise our energy system. He questions whether new centres should be allowed at a time when total electricity demand is already surging. “I’m personally very sceptical that any further expansion of data centre deployment in Ireland can be justified in that context,” he says. 

“At the very least, I would argue that there should be a temporary moratorium unless and until consistency with the carbon budget programme can be clearly and reliably demonstrated.”

Industry figures stress that data centres are responsible for a relatively small proportion of Irish carbon emissions – about 1.85% in 2020, according to one estimate. Garry Connolly of Host in Ireland points out that more than 40% of Ireland’s electricity now comes from renewable sources, meeting EU targets for renewable energy. He says wind and solar resources will be a big part of the solution to increased power demand, arguing that Ireland has the capacity to produce far more renewable electricity than what will be needed by households.

Connolly senses traditionalist instincts in some of the opposition to data centres. “OK, let’s bring back De Valera, go back to the west and knit jumpers,” he says in mocking exasperation.

Policymakers can’t afford to overlook the critical importance of these facilities, in his view.

“Data is to this industrial revolution what steam was to the first one. It’s the catalyst by which everything revolves – society change, algorithms, smart cities.”

But even industry defenders concede that there are concerns over electricity capacity constraints in areas where data centres are built. EirGrid has already indicated that no new data centre applications will be allowed in the greater Dublin area – where most data centres are clustered – until at least 2028. However, activists worry that other parts of the country will now be increasingly targeted for development.

Are there other options? 

Emanuela Ferrari of Futureproof Clare, which has been campaigning against the construction of a €1.2 billion data centre in Ennis, says the sector is far from the picture of sustainability promoted by industry advocates. The UCD researcher points out that data centres use fossil fuels not only through the national grid, but also through on-site gas and diesel generators.

Then there’s the vast amount of water required by most of these facilities, which can cause supply challenges during spells of hot weather. “We think it’s reckless to allow these developments to go ahead when we’re facing so many environmental problems,” she says.

Ferrari also questions the value of seemingly limitless data for wider society. “A lot of data is stored that it can be sold on for advertising or administrative purposes,” she says. “The average data user could store all their information on hard disks like we did in the past. There’s been a trend of pushing everything online, and that’s a trend that’s been driven by corporations.”

Others see data centres as a fruitful new chapter in Ireland’s long relationship with tech multinationals. Connolly stresses that few other countries have been as successful at exporting software. “Floppy disks and CD-Roms have gone, and now we have centres that hold data. What people are forgetting in their hysteria to demonise the asset class is that this is just an evolution.

“Now it would be easier to communicate that message if 40-foot containers were pulling up outside and people could see the boxes being loaded and brought down to the docks, and think, ‘Oh, that’s Spotify and that’s AirBnB, and there’s Revolut.’ Fibres cables are our port now, but there’s no revolution going on here.”

But McMullin says any additional emissions must be avoided for the good of society. “It will take at least another decade for us to have copious renewable electricity supplies, and until then we just can’t afford any extra electricity usage with extra emissions.

“We have to think hard now about prioritisation. What are the things we absolutely can’t do without? What are the things that are keeping people safe and well and secure? Data centres provide lots of valuable services – and in some cases essential services – but we have more than enough at this stage to deliver those things.”

This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.