LAST UPDATE | 23 Jul 2024

MINISTER EAMON RYAN refuted the idea of clamping down on data centres amid a 20% rise in electricity consumption from data centres from 2022 to 2023.

Across the four quarters of 2022, 5,270 Gigawatt hours (GWh) were recorded. In 2023, 6,334 GWh were recorded, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO). 

A kilowatt hour (kWh) is a unit of energy equalling one kilowatt of power sustained over an hour – an electric heater would use this amount of energy. 

A GWh is equivalent to one million kWh.

The CSO released new data this morning on electrical consumption in 2023, in which it says that 5% of metered electricity was consumed by data centres in 2015, increasing to 18% in 2022, and reaching 21% in 2023. 

Urban dwellings’ consumption levels fell by 1% from 2022 to 18% last year, while rural dwellings remained at 10%.

It means that data centres now consume more electricity than all the homes in Irish cities combined. 

Central Statistics Office Central Statistics Office

The former Green Party leader, who announced his departure from the role last month, said that Ireland “needs data centres”. 

“They’re part of our economy, they bring real benefits,” he told reporters at the celebration of 40 years of the DART at the Grand Canal DART Station earlier today. 

“Look at where we are. We’re in the Docklands area where we’ve huge employment and huge benefits from having us be the centre of the digital industry,” he said. 

He said that data centres “have to live within the climate limits” that Ireland has as well as within “the power and grid limits”. 

“That’s something that the Commission for Regulation of Utilities is coming out with their connection policy, recognising that we do want data centres, but it has to live within our energy and our climate limits.

“And that’s what we can and will manage and do,” he said. 

Related Reads

Opinion: How many data centres is enough for Ireland - when will we call a halt?

Data centres consumed 31% more electricity last year compared to 2021

Drilling for Data: Growing energy needs fuelling rise in data centre emissions

Total metered electricity consumption was up by 2.5% in 2023 compared with 2022.  

Earlier this month, a report stated that Google’s planned data centre in South Dublin would contribute over 220,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year in the short term. 80% of the electricity grid would be renewable by 2030 in accordance with CAP24, the report said.

People Before Profit’s Environment spokesperson, TD Paul Murphy, has called for an immediate ban on new data centres and strict limits on electricity consumption by existing centres. 

“The government has refused to place any real limits on data centre development despite repeated warnings from Eirgrid, the CRU, the government’s Climate Advisory Council and the Department of Enterprise that data centre growth is out of control,” he said. 

He said that People Before Profit is promising to stand alongside local people in Grangecastle, where the proposed Google data centre is to be developed, “to fight tooth and nail to block this ecocidal megaproject”. 

All renewable energy that comes on stream in the coming years needs to be ring-fenced for ‘essential needs’ rather than ‘wasted’ on data centres, he added.