Environmental activists to protest against planned data centre in Co Clare
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The expansion of data centres in Ireland "has brought our energy grid to the brink", environmental activists in Clare have claimed as they prepare to protest against a planned new facility in the county.
Futureproof Clare, Ecojustice Ireland, and groups such as Friends of the Irish Environment (FoE) have strenuously vowed to resist the planned €450m data centre in Ennis, which was given the green light by the local authority this month.
The groups will hold a conference today outlining their objections to the project.
Developer Art Data Centres was granted planning by Clare County Council for the €450m Ennis project, claiming it will create up to 450 permanent jobs when the campus is fully operational, and that up to 1,200 will be employed during construction.
The campus will comprise six data halls of 33MW each, an energy centre, and a so-called 'vertical farm', covering 145 acres and 1.3m sq ft.
The 200-megawatt project will take seven years to build if construction begins this year, the developer said.
Environmental campaigners and energy experts have questioned the sustainability of data centres in Ireland, with statistics showing their enormous power and water usage.
According to Central Statistics Office (CSO) data earlier this year, electricity consumption by data centres increased by 32% between 2020 and 2021, and the increase between January-March 2015 and October-December 2021 was 265%.
The electricity consumption is equivalent to an additional 200,000 homes being powered, according to experts, while running one of Ireland's 70 data centres is known to be water-intensive because of the cooling needed.
Dr Paul Deane, senior research fellow at MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate, and Marine at University College Cork (UCC), has previously said the growth in data centre energy consumption in 2021 was the same as adding more than 200,000 homes to the power system.
"The power system was under considerable stress in 2021 with extended outages at major power plant and it is clear from the CSO numbers that new data centres added to this difficulty," he said.
"As we move through the current energy crisis and ongoing climate crisis, the Government must focus energy and emission reductions."
Futureproof Clare has also raised concerns around air quality in Ennis, which has regularly exceeded World Health Organization (WHO) levels for harmful particles.
Chair of Ecojustice Ireland Declan Owens said: "It is shameful that Clare is being treated as a sacrifice zone for the interests of big business and that this is facilitated by local and national politicians.
"We are in a climate and ecological emergency, which requires urgent action to safeguard our environment, yet the data centres will worsen the impact on the citizens of Clare across multiple spheres, including air pollution."
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