Planners have given energy supplier Energia permission to build a data centre on its Co Dublin site in partnership with tech giant, Microsoft.
Heritage body An Taisce and Louth Environment Group had appealed Fingal County Council’s April 2022 decision to allow the electricity and gas supplier build the centre at Huntstown.
But the planning appeals board on Tuesday gave Energia the green light to build the data centre, saying the plan was in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Government’s Climate Action Plan 2024.
The data centre will sit alongside Energia’s two power stations at Huntstown. The company will supply the facility with electricity from onshore wind and solar farms set to generate 900 mega watts of electricity.
Microsoft will run the data centre and buy the farms’ electricity directly from Energia through deals called corporate power purchase agreements. They include the power company’s Drumlins wind farm in Co Monaghan, which already supplies electricity to Microsoft under such a deal.
An Bord Pleanála noted that the centre would be within an area that Fingal County Council has zoned for heavy industrial use.
Ian Thom, Energia chief executive, said the project highlighted the company’s commitment to building infrastructure needed for economic growth. “It will be underpinned by reliable, low-carbon and resilient power supplies,” he pledged.
Microsoft pointed out that it had agreed deals to buy renewable electricity from several companies, including Energia, in November 2022. A spokeswoman added that working with Energia in this way aligned with Government principles for sustainable data centre development.
Microsoft’s partnership with the energy company is a “critical part of our strategy to help meet the growing demand for cloud services in both the public and private sector and unlocking the opportunities presented by AI”, she said.
Data centres are under fire in the Republic as they consume large quantities of electricity in a system that is under pressure. However, advocates argue that they are essential to anchoring around 160,000 high-tech jobs here.
An Bord Pleanála also gave permission for a substation at the site.
Energia maintains that this will ease local bottlenecks in the electricity network and “ultimately make the grid in the area more robust”.
Locating the centre at the Huntstown site cuts the need for new electricity network and strengthens north Dublin’s transmission network, the company says.
An Bord Pleanála’s ruling notes that the plan’s power management measures and connection agreements mitigate any potential adverse impact on power supplies.
Planners say that the centre is close to Energia’s power plants and has renewable energy available to it through the power purchase deal. They point out that it will have an advanced energy storage system that opens possible district heating opportunities.
Excess heat from industrial buildings is regularly used to supply nearby homes in Europe. Government’s Climate Action Plan proposes adopting this.
