Data centres have seen a striking increase in their electricity usage, with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) documenting a rise from a mere 5% in 2015 to a substantial 21% in the previous year. The CSO’s data illustrates an interesting shift in 2023 when these centres surpassed urban homes in energy utilisation, accounting for 18% of the total recorded electricity consumption. In comparison, rural homes constituted only 10%.
A steady escalation has been reported in the quarterly electricity consumption by data centres over the years, leaping from 290 Gigawatt hours in the first quarter of 2015 to a whopping 1,661 Gigawatt hours in the final quarter of 2023. This signifies a dramatic increase of 473% as highlighted by the agency.
These revelations have ignited a fervent discussion regarding the energy demands of data centres and questioned whether their increasing presence contradicts national climate strategies. Peter Burke has brought attention to the apparent ‘organised hypocrisy’ in the State’s climate approach, with the plan for a new Google data centre, estimated to generate nearly a quarter of a million tonnes of carbon emissions.
Computer storage systems – housed in these centres – are anticipated to generate 27% of total projected electricity demand by the year 2028, according to the CSO. Large energy consumers, inclusive of data centres and characterised by their “extremely high consumption”, made up 30% of the total measured consumption in 2023.
In terms of raw figures, the total recorded electricity utilisation by substantial energy consumers in 2023 was 9,102 Gigawatt hours, representing a 16% climb from the preceding year.