By I. Hansana, Jadetimes News
Ireland's Data Centers Now Consume More Electricity Than Urban Homes
Data centers in Ireland consumed more electricity last year than all of the country's urban homes combined, according to official figures from the Central Statistics Office. The growing number of data centers accounted for 21% of Ireland's electricity use, a 20% increase from 2022. This marked the first year that data centers supporting Ireland's tech hub surpassed the electricity consumption of homes in towns and cities, which used 18% of the grid’s total power.
Experts are concerned that this surge in power demand from data centers could undermine climate targets in Ireland and Europe. Google, which has its European headquarters in Ireland, recently acknowledged that its data centers could delay its green ambitions after a 48% increase in overall emissions last year compared to 2019.
The increasing demand for data processing, driven by advances in artificial intelligence, may cause Ireland’s data centers to consume about 31% of the country’s electricity within the next three years, according to the National Energy and Climate Plan. This would surpass the combined electricity demand of urban and rural homes, which accounted for 28% of total power demand in 2023. The rising consumption is likely to pressure tech companies to invest more in renewable energy sources.
Ireland’s data center and tech company boom has been driven by its policy of low corporate taxation. Professor Paul Deane, a senior research fellow at University College Cork, told the Irish Examiner that the country’s reliance on fossil fuels is a major issue. "If we already had lots of wind and lots of solar, it wouldn’t be a problem. We’re still so reliant on fossil fuels. We need to be able to build up renewables very quickly. We’re good at building large data centers quickly but not as good at building renewables."
Last year, more than 50% of Ireland’s electricity came from fossil fuels, with 45% generated by gas plants and the rest from coal, peat, or oil. Wind power contributed 34.6% of Ireland’s electricity, while solar made up 1.2%. Deane emphasized that Ireland “can’t have its environmental cake and eat it,” highlighting the need for rapid development of renewable energy sources to meet growing electricity demands.
