CAMPAIGNERS AND POLITICIANS have called for a moratorium on data centres that aren’t powered by renewable energy, as a major development in Kilmeaden is refused planning permission. 

More than 500 people objected to the technology park in Kilmeaden, around 12 kilometres outside of Waterford city, which would drastically transform the village. 

The campus would’ve spanned more than one square kilometre, and was to include a new village centre, with a gym, café, shop, pharmacy and office space, as well as a two-storey childcare facility and outdoor play area.

Environmentalists said the increased emissions from the centre could threaten climate targets.

The lives of locals, which include many elderly people, would be “completely disrupted” during the 10 years it would take to build the technology park, one Kilmeaden resident told The Journal last year.

The Irish company behind the development, Echelon, has leased data centres to TikTok, among others. 

The development was yesterday refused planning permission due to a predicted influx in traffic and increased pressure on water and electricity.

Green Party TD Roderic O’Gorman has called for the reinstatement of a moratorium on data centres that can’t be sustained with renewable energy, which was in place while his party was in government but has since been scrapped.

“We are seeing that data centres across the country are causing environmental issues through their use of fossil fuelled energy and pressure on the national grid, noise pollution, and water use,” he said in a statement.

“The current government has lifted that moratorium and we’re seeing now that the cost of that is not just on the environment, but also on people’s pockets as households pay for data centre energy use in their energy bills.”

Local councillor John O’Leary, who campaigned against the data centre, also supports the idea of a moratorium.

He said for Kilmeaden, he wanted the village to remain small and local, rather than become an industrial hub.

“There’s a very strong sense of community and the residents came out in full force against this,” he told The Journal today.

“Everybody and anybody who could was writing in submissions.”

Around 300 people live in the village’s immediate surrounds, while there are approximately 3,000 people in the wider area.

Sinn Féin TD for Waterford David Cullinane said the planning decision underlines the importance of proper planning and scrutiny when large-scale developments are proposed.

“Economic development cannot be considered in isolation from those wider responsibilities. The public interest must remain central to decisions of this nature,” he said.

Cullinane believes Ireland needs a “coherent approach” to data centres that takes into account electricity demand, grid capacity, climate obligations and the impact on local communities.