Electricity consumption by data centres in Ireland rose from 5% in 2015 to 21% in 2023.

In early December 2024, research commissioned by Friends of the Earth Ireland revealed that the electricity demand in Ireland from data centres has grown at an annual rate of 23% since 2015. This was a much more rapid rate of growth than other sectors, which grew at around half a percent.

Data centres are experiencing a boom in demand due to the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, and Ireland is leading the global charge in developing them. While low corporate tax and cool temperatures makes it lucrative for tech giants to set up these data centres in Ireland, the same benefit does not extend to the Irish public facing soaring energy bills and rolling blackouts. 

“The current trajectory of data centre demand is incompatible with Ireland’s climate goals. Data centres are growing far faster than the renewable energy procured to meet their needs,” energy analyst Prof Hannah Daly of UCC (who conducted the research) said.

The report stated that Ireland’s electricity demand would have remained relatively stable if not for data centres. Instead, between 2012 and 2022, demand surged by 24.7 percent, marking the second-fastest growth rate in the EU. Electricity consumption by data centres in Ireland rose from 5% in 2015 to 21% in 2023

Data centres use more than a fifth of energy in Ireland (CSO) and are expected to use a third of Ireland’s total electricity (32%) by 2026 (the International Energy Agency).

“It’s kind of an outrageous number of data centers. People have started to make the connection between the amount of electricity they’re using and electricity prices going up.” – Darragh Adelaide to Ap News, Activist & Councillor

Italy, Ireland, and Denmark had some of the highest household electricity prices worldwide, as of March 2024. (Graph)/ Irish householders pay some of Europe’s highest electricity bills/electricity prices in Ireland are the second highest in the EU and almost 30 per cent above average, behind only Germany.

Why does Ireland Attract So Many Data Centres?

There are 82 data centres in Ireland, 14 under construction, and approval for an additional 40 centres, a 65% growth in coming years.

Data centres are part of a longstanding vision of Ireland as a tech hub led by the low corporate tax rate, which was 12.5% until 2023. The average corporate tax rate globally is 23%). Ireland’s cool temperatures also makes it easier to keep data centres from overheating without using as much water.
Data centres have contributed €7.3bn to the Irish economy, but provide only about 16,000 jobs to a country of 5.28 million people.

What About Ireland’s Energy Infrastructure?

In 2022, Fears of rolling blackouts led Ireland’s grid operator, EirGrid, to halt new data centers near Dublin until 2028. But applications for centres outside the capital are still being granted.

In August 2022, after two consecutive electricity outages in Ireland, then-finance minister Paschal Donohoe dismissed the lack of employment, emphasising instead the “huge importance of them to really large employers within our country, whose taxes and jobs are playing an invaluable part in our economic performance at the moment”, on Morning Ireland.

In order for big tech to be sustainable, there needs to be evidence that renewables generation outpaces the energy demands of data centres. One potential solution is to look more carefully at what data we retain, and why. Up to 88% of what is stored in the cloud is considered junk data that will not be accessed again by users.