Friends of the Earth has called for an immediate cessation on further data centre connections until a sturdier government policy and stricter regulations are established to control the sector’s unwieldy growth. The Central Statistics Office disclosed this week that data centres are responsible for over 20% of Ireland’s electricity consumption, a figure that surpasses the combined use of 18% for urban homes and 10% for rural dwellings.
The eco-conscious organization insisted on Friday that these centres should be compelled to invest robustly in on-site renewable energy and storage facilities to minimize their burden on the national electricity grid. In addition, they stated that data centres must make a commitment to eliminating the use of fossil fuels, such as fossil gas and diesel, at their facilities. The establishment of a zero-emissions electricity system powered by renewable energy was also encouraged.
Friends of the Earth also called on the Irish government to halt the processing of speculative data centre applications that potentially overstate expected energy usage and place additional strain on resources. The organization also advocated for the annual declaration of data centre emissions and future estimates.
Ireland currently houses 82 functioning data centres, with an additional 14 being constructed and 40 more having obtained planning permission. Predictions indicate a significant 65% expansion in the sector in the foreseeable future.
Jerry MacEvilly, the policy chief at Friends of the Earth, cautioned that this escalating trend is a grave risk to both the nation’s energy security and climate commitments. Despite government assurances that data centres must function within climate thresholds, he argues that the existing policies do not guarantee this. With projections indicating that data centres could devour up to 30% of total electricity supply by 2030, MacEvilly posits that Ireland is an exceptional case. He further probed the acceptance that data centres are a necessary evil and questioned the real beneficiaries of their swelling expansion. He questioned the logic behind the continued growth of such an electricity-consuming industry at a time of imminent necessity to reduce energy demand, considering both energy security and climate objectives.
David Rossiter, a representative from Friends of the Earth advocating for the removal of fossil fuels, stated that a recent Ireland Thinks survey revealed that 51% of the respondents were in favour of halting the development of data centres. Contrary to popular opinion, data centres aren’t significant contributors to economic expansion, he argued.
The energy system in Ireland is one of Europe’s dirtiest, largely due to the dependency on fossil gas, as underlined by University College Cork experts. Rossiter stressed that this issue is only worsened by the induction of high-demand data centres.
Rosi Leonard, a network development coordinator from an environmental society, echoed this by noting that the rapid surge of data centres threatens Ireland’s climate objectives. It begs the question of whom our power structures are truly serving, she said.
In order to prioritise eliminating costly and harmful fossil fuel reliance from our households and communities, Leonard believes we must consider the excessive consumption of resources by data centres. She underscored the significant usage of renewable energy for individual gain and the alarming levels of water usage involved.
As an instance, Leonard highlighted Meta’s data centre located in Clonee, Co Meath, which utilises more water than the whole city of Mullingar and leads all other Meta data centres worldwide in terms of water consumption.
She warned that allowing unrestricted data centre expansion in Ireland risks undermining a fair transition for communities and could lead to an inequitable situation where the broader population bears the burden of costly fossil fuel expenses while private businesses enjoy clean energy privileges. Her clear message was that this needs to be halted.