Sir, – The article by Harry Goddard, CEO of Deloitte, is the latest in a line of troubling media commentaries which frame colossal data centre expansion as a simple opportunity with little or no adverse impacts (“Instead of curbing data centres, we should build more to spark greater demand for renewable energy”, Business, Opinion, October 14th). The author’s suggestions that we need to create “a robust demand base”, and that renewables and grid development must support further data centre expansion, ignore technical, environmental and legal realities.
The article raises notable Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) information regarding recent positive reductions in emissions. It leaves out, however, that the EPA also raised significant concerns regarding the State’s ability to meet legally binding climate obligations unless disciplined climate action is achieved across all parts of Government.
Ireland is already an outlier in Europe, with data centres accounting for more than 20 per cent of electricity demand (far above the EU average of 2 per cent) and expected to reach 30 per cent by 2030. Reducing, not expanding, energy demand is a cornerstone of Government policy on energy security and climate. The Climate Change Advisory Council has also highlighted that it will be increasingly difficult to remain within legally-binding carbon budgets if data centres continue to be connected at the current rate.
The author suggests that the state should increase the number of data centres as they can act “as a catalyst to accelerate the development of renewable energy”. The author graciously acknowledges that the growth in demand may be “unwelcome”, but asserts “it is an unstoppable force” laden with “strategic benefit” on the back of “AI innovation”.
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We recognise that AI and data centre development may indeed be a bonanza for large global consultancies. However, one is left wondering what exactly are the benefits of this arrangement for communities already dependent on polluting, expensive gas, coal and oil. Is the decarbonisation of Irish society through renewables and grid to become secondary to the needs of the data centre industry?
Moreover, if data centre companies are allowed to largely ignore or dismiss legally binding climate obligations, what message does this send to other polluting industries? And how can communities be expected to invest in an energy transformation that appears to be limited, or beholden, to a particular industry?
These questions are not abstract. The State has rightly made great efforts to decarbonise our already highly polluting electricity system, but new data centres are adding more fuel to the fire – recent figures revealed that the growth in electricity demand from data centres in 2023 was more than all the new renewable energy connected to the grid last year. And the data centre industry thus far has been a “catalyst” for ongoing pollution due to increasing reliance on fossil gas and the gas network. And experts are expecting this situation to further deteriorate.
Ultimately neither our energy system nor our decarbonisation commitments were planned to serve the needs of one industry.
Friends of the Earth is calling on all political parties to reject PR spin and support a pause on connecting more data centres to the grid until the threat they pose to the security and sustainability of our energy system has been removed. – Is mise,
JERRY MacEVILLY,
Head of Policy,
Friends of the Earth,
Dublin 2.