{"id":120727,"date":"2025-10-14T05:02:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T05:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/120727\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T05:02:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T05:02:15","slug":"data-centres-costing-e5-6bn-have-planning-approval-but-no-electricity-industry-warns-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/120727\/","title":{"rendered":"Data centres costing \u20ac5.6bn have planning approval but no electricity, industry warns \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

New data centres <\/a>costing \u20ac5.6 billion have planning approval but no electricity to power them, an industry chief has said as the sector urges Ministers to tackle restrictions that have left big investments \u201cmarooned\u201d. <\/p>\n

Data-centre access to electricity and gas has been limited for years because of the risk of blackouts set off by the sector\u2019s surging demand for power.<\/p>\n

Although the Coalition promised in the programme for government in January to accelerate energy generation, several big projects remain stalled due to a lack of power and policy uncertainty.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Data centres could consume ‘as much electricity as two million Irish homes’ by 2030Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a serious stain on Ireland\u2019s foreign direct investment record as a welcoming, pro-business destination that data centres have been built and rightly expected connections, but have been marooned,\u201d said Maurice Mortell, chairman of Digital Infrastructure Ireland (DII), a group representing large data-centre providers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis needs to be rectified by Government as a matter of urgency. Some \u20ac5.6 billion of data centres have planning but no power, with a further \u20ac7.8 billion in a pipeline for Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the State being a significant beneficiary of the internet economy in the first quarter of the century, data-centre curbs have led to anxiety that it has missed out on the first wave of notable investment in artificial-intelligence (AI) technology.<\/p>\n

Ireland has seen a sharp increase in the amount of data centres in operation in recent years, but are they necessary for economic growth? Video: Enda O’Dowd <\/p>\n

Data centres are buildings that house highly energy-intensive computer systems for storing internet, business and AI data. Restrictions were imposed in 2021 and 2022 after the sector\u2019s electricity demand added the equivalent of 140,000 households to the national grid over four successive years.<\/p>\n

Constraints on the electricity network have implications beyond data centres, retarding accommodation delivery and other business investment.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Data centres accounted for more than 20% of State’s electricity usage last yearOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The summer cancellation of a big Amazon jobs project <\/a>because of the lack of power prompted concern about the capacity for industrial investment in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Mr Mortell\u2019s intervention follows the recent state visit of US president Donald Trump <\/a>to Britain, in which a \u00a3150 billion (\u20ac173 billion) investment package included several data-centre projects.<\/p>\n

He warned of Irish \u201cself-sabotage\u201d from the prolonged uncertainty over data-centre policy, saying policy drift has diverted tens of billions of euros in potential investment to other countries. \u201cIreland is effectively closed for business.\u201d<\/p>\n

DII represents many of the data-centre companies that provide services to tech giants such as Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon, which have big Irish operations and require data centres for their business.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s members include Vantage, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, EdgeConnex, EngineNode, Equinix, K2, Keppel, Pure Data Centres and T5. It also includes data-centre builders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland needs to commit to certainty on its data centre policy quickly, otherwise it will miss the next phase of investment into digital developments, having lost the first wave of it over the last five years,\u201d said Mr Mortell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith billions of euros expected to be invested in AI and data centre development in the coming years, delays in addressing the challenges facing digital infrastructure risk jeopardising Ireland\u2019s chance of securing this investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Opinion: Should State allow construction of more data centres?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said the Commission for Regulation of Utilities<\/a> (CRU), which oversees the electricity sector, should provide a firm timeline for a new policy on data centres. <\/p>\n

Asked about DII concerns, a spokeswoman for Minister for Energy Darragh O\u2019Brien <\/a>said the sector was \u201ccentral\u201d to the Republic\u2019s economic and digital future. She went on to cite a \u20ac3.5 billion investment in the power grid under the new National Development Plan<\/a>. \u201cThe Government remains firmly committed to facilitating further foreign direct investment and supporting indigenous enterprise, recognising the importance of enabling new technologies and data storage capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities completed a public consultation on the connection policy for large energy users earlier this year, she said. \u201cThe CRU is currently reviewing the feedback received and will then publish its decision. The Government will carefully consider this policy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New data centres costing \u20ac5.6 billion have planning approval but no electricity to power them, an industry chief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,444,18,3428,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-120727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-data-centres","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-government","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}