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Google plans major data centre expansion in Dublin

Plans for 72,400sq m data storage facility at Grange Castle site which houses servers for products including Gmail, Google Maps and its search engine

Google is planning to extend its data centre operations at its Grange Castle site. Photograph: Collins

Ciara O'Brien
Thu Jun 27 2024 - 13:21

Google is planning to extend its data centre operations in Ireland, with an expansion of its existing centre in Dublin.

The company wants to build a 72,400sq m data storage facility at its Grange Castle site in Dublin 22, which will include data halls, offices, staff facilities and other support services. The application also includes the creation of a new active travel route to connect Grange Castle Business Park South and Profile Park Road. The plans have been published in the national press.

“We have issued the formal notice that we will be submitting a planning application to expand our existing data centre in Ireland,” a spokesperson for the company said. “This application reflects our ongoing commitment to meeting the growing demand for our services and supporting Ireland’s digital economy.”

[ Hannah Daly: Data centres are a serious threat to Ireland’s carbon budgets ]

This will bring to three the number of data centres at the Grange Castle site, which officially opened in 2016. It houses servers that run some of Google’s main products including Gmail, Google Maps and its search engine.

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The company first announced plans to build a European data centre in Dublin in September, 2011, investing €75 million to convert a warehouse in west Dublin into an energy-efficient data centre. It opened its first Irish data centre in 2012. Since then, it has spent more than €500 million in building and operating data centres in Dublin, including a €150 million expansion project in 2018.

In total, Google employs about 5,000 people directly in Ireland across its businesses; the data centre operations account for a relatively small number of that, with the last expansion at the Dublin site predicted to add about 100 jobs once the centre was up and running.

Grange Castle is home to a number of other high-profile tech companies’ data centres, including Microsoft and Interxion, with AWS also locating some of its data operations in Dublin, and Meta opting for Clonee, Co Meath.

Tech companies here have raised concerns over restrictions placed on new data centres three years ago, with new projects struggling to get a connection to the national grid.

The restrictions were imposed due to concerns about the risk of electricity blackouts.

Existing data centre projects that are seeking to expand, such as Amazon’s Dublin 15 campus, do not appear to have the same issues as they already have a connection to the grid.

Campaigners have also warned of the pressure that data centres could put on the national grid, despite moves to ensure energy efficiency and the inclusion of green energy promises in the proposals for many of the centres.

In turn, tech companies have warned that any moratorium on new data centres could potentially harm future multinational investment, and also risk damaging Ireland’s reputation as a digital hub. The new generation of AI technologies, which require more processing power, could put further pressure on data centre resources and focus investment outside of Ireland.

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities is expected to publish a new policy on connecting large energy users such as data centres to the national grid by the end of the summer.

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist

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