Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE DEMAND FOR electricity in Ireland is expected to rise by 45% in the next decade, according to EirGrid.
Data centres and and any other new technology-related energy drains are forecast to account for 31% of electricity demand by 2034.
EirGrid has published its annual analysis of Ireland’s electricity landscape. The new report examines the likely balance between electricity demand and supply over the 10-year period from 2025 to 2034 for the whole island of Ireland.
EirGrid has been warning policymakers about an increasing tightness between supply and demand since 2016.
Over the next few years, there is a “potentially challenging outlook” in Ireland, EirGrid says.
Demand for electricity is forecast to grow considerably over the next decade. Under the median scenario, electricity demand would increase by 45% between 2023 and 2034.
In this scenario, the peak demand is forecast to increase by 24% by 2034 compared with 2023.
Ireland recorded a new peak demand of 6,024 MW on 8 January 2025, which was the first time that peak electricity demand surpassed 6,000 MW. By 2034, EirGrid’s analysis anticipates that it will be above 7,000 MW.
As the world battles the climate crisis, Ireland and other countries need to switch from fossil fuels and transition their grids to renewable sources of energy.
Under the Climate Action Plan, Ireland should be sourcing 80% of electricity from renewables like wind and solar by 2030.
The imperative to lower greenhouse gas emissions that are clogging up the atmosphere and causing global average temperatures to rise is ever-clearer as scientific report after scientific report shows the tangible impacts of climate change.
Data centres will make up a significant chunk of the rising demand.
Last year, The Journal Investigates uncovered that data centres using backup and emergency generators in Ireland are releasing huge quantities of carbon dioxide emissions.
Over 135,000 tonnes of CO2 was emitted from these centres in the last five years from generators not on the electricity grid. The backup generators are used to keep the centres operational during times of grid connectivity issues.
The investigation also highlighted how some planned data centres intend to be powered by natural gas because they cannot be connected to the grid as it is under such strain.
It’s expected that the electrification of heat and transport will also contribute to the rising electricity demand.
The proportion of overall electricity demand from heat pumps is estimated to rise from 3% in 2025 to 10% by 2034.
Additionally, the proportion of overall demand from electric cars will likely rise from 1% to 8%.
A media statement from EirGrid says that its analysis “shows that further new electricity generation will be required to secure the transition to high levels of renewable electricity over the coming decades”.
“A balanced portfolio of new capacity is required, including the need for new cleaner gas fired generation which is renewable gas ready and can supply electricity at times when the wind and solar generation is low.”
Eoin Kennedy, Director of Innovation and Planning at EirGrid said that “as we transition to a renewable-led transmission system, which will benefit the economy and wider society, the electricity industry will have to find new ways to meet the increasing need for energy without relying mainly on burning fossil fuels”.
“New government policies will help to guide this transition as electricity demand increases out to 2030,” Kennedy said.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
They should be made build their own power plants contributing to the grid.
Not taking away.
@Notty Tee: this is driving up the cost of electricity for everyone else. People cannot afford these electric costs.
@Notty Tee: That is what’s needed, a guarantee that new data centres are self-sufficient, and can contribute to the grid when needed. We could even use their vast battery backups for national energy storage, which is important as renewables (wind, solar) are intermittent. They should be paying back more than just taxes.
Also, while new planning permission requirements for data centres requires the owner to commit to generating, or storing, the same amount of power as the data centre uses, these changes does mean they generate their own electricity all the time, it’s only back up power. So if a power station goes down, or there’s a lack of power due to a lack of wind, or a cable snaps in the Irish Sea, and we lack power, we won’t have to switch off sections of the grid (rolling black-outs) to keep data centres on. So there’s at least that.
@Notty Tee: you’re using a data centre right now looking at this!
@David Jordan: why dont we close all the data centres and bring the country back to the 1950s
@Peter Byrne: well that’s just wrong. Maybe learn how these things work.
Disgusting. For those saying we need data centres to keep up with technological advances – these data centres are housing data from across the world. Helping other countries advance technology while having us pay extra for electricity to accommodate them. We’re a joke.
@James Groden: far left nonsense opposing progress as per usual. You and the far right are two sides of the same coin
@James Groden: we don’t pay for their electricity…
@Eoghan O Sullivan: No you don’t, but you massively subsidise it. They have a good reason for not showing us the rates big business pays.
People forget very easily. What about the scandal in 2023, which showed how consumers were paying more to help businesses for the previous 10 years.
What is the actual financial benefit to Ireland from accommodating data centers?
@P0h2YVAL: they pay for their electricity. Many jobs in construction, and some thereafter.
@Eoghan O Sullivan: this is untrue. They do not pay their fair share, and sometimes not at all. There are construction jobs for mostly non-nationals and a handful of ex-pats. It’s the new colonisation. As evidence has shown data centres have NOTHING to do with employment in tech companies themselves. This is an untruth from FFG.
@P0h2YVAL: it’s a negative. We are failing in the scam that is the climate bill due to data centres and will have to pay billions for housing data for everyone else.
Also, I’d imagine a massive target on our backs easily destroyed in war situations.
@Luas Vuitton – Penneys Drag Queen:
Why dont we just close all the data centres so , do away with all those on line nonsense , do away with smart phones, and bring the country back to the 1950s. Most of the data centres capacity is used in Ireland for you silly fotos , all the email and Irish web sites and loads more information which needs storage space
@Eoghan O Sullivan: data centres employ far fewer employees than other tech industries and there’s a dearth of construction workers in the country so the effects on employment is minimal
@Peter Byrne: you need to cop on and grow up.
@Peter Byrne: Why don’t we all go back to living on potatoes and buttermilk you big child.
@P0h2YVAL: zero
The Irish love to burden themselves for foreigners. Data centres should be no different
Add an automated A.I./robot system to the centers, and there will be close to no employment offered by data centers. Give it a decade.
No wonder our electric is the highest in Europe with competition like that. But we’re told it’s Putins war that is pushing up the price. Arseholes
@Ethan Gannon: Have you got special privileges slipping arsehole in there?
@Pat Barry: apparently not. You were able to use the term yourself.
I suppose this will lead to massive fines under the climate agreements?
@A D: yes yes
If they’re saying a third then it will be more. They love to slow boil us with info
@Gavin Smartr: I was thinking the same thing about Paschal’s 50,000 – 80,000 estimate of unemployed possibly to come.
I hate way they make things and then blame us for it. Data centres are hugely damaging for our health and the environment.
@Be Lucky: post Offices always have Doro phones in stock.
@Be Lucky:
Also the health of the children who assembled your mobile phone in China
Is there a case to be made that as electricity is a product in demand, like that of houses, that demand could make the product more expensive?
@Keth 417: not just a case to be made, it’s just an eternal truth, demand will always make any product more expensive. There are only three exceptions to this: goods of conspicuous consumption, inferior goods, and giffen goods.
@George Bowling: Well said.
I’m starting online petition to curb data centres. Please sign it and share it as much as you can.
I’ll be holding a zoom call to kick off the campaign and organise on WhatsApp after that.
Donations via Revolut please.
who do we blame now that eamon ryan is gone? i thought the era of too many data centres, asylum seekers and carbon taxes would be over with no greens in gov?
Because we were an agricultural exporter we had too many cows. Now we are an IT country and they are still unhappy. What next ????
This is what generates thousands of well paid jobs in Ireland, if you watch TV, netflix, use the internet, have a phone, have an online account of any type, then you are using data centres, they are essential to the live as we know it, the only way to demand for these data centres to go some place else is if you live in the woods, use no internet whatsoever and don;t use any type of fuel to heat your house, just hunt roadkill animals, have your own greenhouse and cover yourself warm during winter. Otherwise, you have no idea of what you’re talking about, these data centres will be used one way or another.
This is the fun bit as to why Ireland is a big player in the data centre and IT business
Ireland’s climate is not too hot nor too cold, servers generate heat, in warmer places, it will require massive air conditioning and in places like Norway, massive heating as the servers do not generate enough heat to keep at a regulated temperature in cold weather. Moving servers somewhere else will use more planet resources.
Ireland’s location between the USA and India. A human must always be supervised, and work needs to be active 24/7
In a nutshell, Ireland may not have oil, natural resources, but it has the perfect location for It services. Businesses don’t come here for the craic, they come because it’s cheaper to operate and, for once, it’s better for the environment. We just need to generate more green energy, more wind turbines, more solar panels, stop with the NIMBYSM and get it done
@J Ven: untrue.
@J Ven: True.
@Luas Vuitton – Penneys Drag Queen: Tell me with facts, hard proof, what is untrue? Your feelings don’t make it untrue, please show your facts
@Tasty k: no data centres, no smart phones, go back to the woods
@J Ven: the average data centre employs 30 staff -
a very small number in return for their drain on resources
@J Ven: you’ve made broad sweeping claims with zero evidence yet are demanding proof from others? What a hypocrite
@J Ven: You forgot to mention hospitals who use their own data centres on site plus an external one for mirrored backup.
Data centres are here to stay, and people need to accept them. The alternative is going back to paper records, which are a nightmare in themselves.
If only there was a way for people to calculate the power required and plan in advance for our power requirements. Seemingly impossible in Ireland though and much better to blame the data centre for using the power they said they were going to use.
Surely it’s part of the planning process to see if we have the capacity to accommodate them and if not then deny the permission to build or plan for expanding our power production.
If they were made to add renewable power grids to support their usage and also donate forestry or purchase carbon capturing in addition as then we would avoid all this. Ireland is geographically safer than most countries when it comes to climate events for the future that is why the data centers are being built here.
That’s a lot of porn
This scaremongering has been going on for the past 25 years!
Cows, Tourists, Data – everything is bad for the environment is seems. We are all doomed
In fairness, some people spend a third of their time on their phone…..and then go back to the computer screen in work….which is also using data centers….. He says….typing in the journal…. Via a data centre
For a fraction of the cost compared to the great unwashed
Ban all social media…simples!
Making customers poorer and poorer! We Can’t carry the burden of these Companies any longer…Enough IS Enough! Price Caps Now please!!!
@ louis vitton
I work on one of these construction sites. I’d say it’s made up of 75% Irish lads. Without the non Irish workers, the country would grind to a halt.
have your say