Once a year, the Central Statistics Office releases a simple set of statistics that never ceases to shock.
The metered electricity consumption by data centres in Ireland now stands at 21 per cent of all metered electricity. In 2015, the figure was 5 per cent. Metered electricity use by urban dwellings fell year on year by one per cent, (19 per cent of the total in 2022 to 18 per cent in 2023, well done everyone), and remains stable for rural dwellings (10 per cent, bravo). Data centres now consume twice the amount of metered electricity of all rural dwellings in Ireland.
This is not going to stabilise or tail off. As generative AI necessitates a large increase in data centres and their power, this drain on Ireland’s electricity will grow beyond an unsustainable level. At some stage, the Government is going to have to start living in reality and quit inhaling data centre industry and Big Tech spin and exhaling it as policy.
While the industry here doesn’t like to highlight how rapidly it has grown, there are about 82 data centres countrywide. Most are in Dublin. Fourteen more are under construction, and there is planning approval for about 40 more. The data centre industry does not need to make a case for itself, because the Irish Government does that instead. Politicians across Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and — bizarrely — the Green Party consistently parrot industry rhetoric. The relative ease with which the data centre industry took hold in Ireland is remarkable.
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Rarely is this “boom” in data centres framed in the way it should be: the most extraordinary industrialisation project the country has ever seen in terms of the rapid pace of its expansion, its energy requirements, and the enormity of its profits. Infinite growth and infinite energy consumption at a time when we should be talking about reducing energy consumption is a very warped pursuit. This reality needs to be addressed.
The privatisation of renewable energy resources through the construction of wind farms owned by Big Tech in Ireland is also worth querying. The fundamental principle of energy sustainability is that clean energy replaces fossil fuel energy. It should not be about creating more to use more. So what is the plan? Shouldn’t we be thinking beyond the next year and the next decade? Because what we’re seeing globally is the energy demands of data centres are reshaping the very infrastructure of energy generation. Their large energy requirements are slowing the decarbonisation of grids and keeping fossil-fuel-burning plants online longer.
Behind all of this is private profit. In February, the US property investor Starwood Capital announced it was investing €788 million in the Irish-owned data centre company, Echelon. In April, Blackstone bought a majority stake in the Irish data centre construction company Winthrop, a firm that made more than €86 million in pretax profits in 2023.
Browsing the lobbying register, the activity of data centre lobbyists is pronounced. If you’re looking for a quirk in terms of who’s attempting to counter this lobbying power, I give you: nuns. Sisters from the Sisters of Mercy and the Presentation Sisters have both attempted to highlight the negative consequences of the mass rollout of development of data centres in Ireland by writing to politicians. While I appreciate that nuns taking a stand against the data centre industry, its lobbyists, Big Tech, and the bold new age of AI, would make a great Erin Brockovich-style Netflix dramedy (and I’d happily write it), we will probably need more than climate-conscious sisters taking a stand.
All of this has a too-big-to-tackle flavour to it. We are locked in. The data centre industry needed many footholds, and Ireland served as the perfect place to gain one; low seismic activity, temperate climate, an amenable Government that merely asks “how high?” when Big Tech says “jump”, and a lobbying context with a magic revolving door between the political and tech spheres.
Essentially unfettered data centre development is continuing apace here. Where will this take us? Some councillors vote to attempt to stem developments, and they are overruled. Some journalists attempt to spotlight this wild situation, and the industry and politicians push back on us, while other “pro-business” commentators shrug and say things like “data centres have to go somewhere”, or attempt to suggest that if you use the internet, you can’t highlight ramifications.
But there are consequences, and they should be highlighted and planned for. What does the State’s energy strategy look like? How realistic are our climate and emissions targets in a data centre boom? What is the plan for the grid? Is it feasible for a small country to be taking on such a burden? How can individuals be convinced that their small actions in terms of reducing energy use and dropping fossil fuels are worthwhile when they see how much energy data centres are gobbling?
Is it even possible to slow down the relentless drive for AI and the computing power it requires? I don’t necessarily have the answers, but I think it’s worth asking the questions.