A tour of Ireland's data centres

Simon Edward • 13 January 2025

Ireland is an international hub for data centres. Take a tour of its infrastructure – and the challenges it faces.

In 2024, a remarkable statistic came out of Ireland. This was the first year that the country's data centres used more electricity than urban homes – 21% versus 18% of the national grid's total power.

Yes, if there was any doubt, Ireland is a hub for data centres – and, by extension, a hub for international tech. Without data centres, your flight would be cancelled, your work chat would be down and you'd be digging out the DVDs.

And now that AI has arrived on the scene with its promises of greater efficiency and demands for more resources, data centres are more vital than ever.

Like other countries, however, Ireland finds itself in a fix. The demands of global IT need to be balanced against climate targets. This has led to a mixture of frustration, opportunity and innovation.

But before we dive into the challenges faced by the industry in 2024 – just how many data centres are there in Ireland?

How many data centres are there in Ireland?

In one respect, the cloud is like a cloud: the closer you look, the less you see. At least, that's how it can feel when trying to establish just exactly how many data centres there are in Ireland.

Business law firm Mason Hayes Curran puts the figure at 82, with 14 more under construction and planning approved for another 40. Online database Data Center Map says there are 72, while another directory says there are just 47.

Whatever the precise figure, data centres in Ireland provide services for multinationals, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok.

Microsoft, for instance, runs a data centre campus in Grange Castle data park, around 10 kilometres west of Dublin city centre. It's also planning to build a data centre in County Kildare, southwest of the city.

Why does Ireland have so many data centres?

Ireland has been a thriving tech hub since at least the mid-1990s when the so-called "Celtic Tiger" boom saw a period of rapid growth.

But why is it home to so many data centres? There are four key reasons.

First, Ireland is home to a highly educated workforce with many specialist IT professionals. As cloud computing becomes more and more sophisticated, this workforce is more valued than ever.

Secondly, Ireland has a cool climate with plenty of available clean water. This allows data centre owners to stop their servers from overheating with less water than in other parts of the world.

Thirdly, there are tax incentives. Ireland has one of Europe's lowest corporation tax rates, even taking into account its increase from 12.5% to 15% at the start of 2024.

Finally, Ireland is well-placed for undersea cables – those vital pieces of underwater infrastructure that transfer packets of data across the seas. Ireland is a node for cables travelling to Britain, mainland Europe, Iceland and the USA.

All of these factors make Ireland an enviable location for data centres. But it's not all plain sailing. In 2021, a moratorium was placed on the construction of new data centres in Dublin. This was in response to the burden they were placing on the electricity grid.

Tech companies were encouraged to look outside Dublin and adopt new power supplies. Ireland isn't alone in this kind of initiative. Similar restrictions have been introduced in Germany, Singapore, China and the Netherlands.

Nevertheless, it's a clear roadblock for a country that puts so much stock in data centres. Take the case of Digital Realty.

The effect of regional moratoriums: the case of Digital Realty

Texas-based Digital Realty has a 5,500-square-metre data centre at Grange Castle. Since 2017, it has provided colocation facilities for banks, social media platforms and email providers.

But at the time of writing, it's standing idle. It's waiting for permission to connect to the electricity grid, despite (it argues) having the resources to run all its Irish data centres on renewables.

Renewables, it seems, are at the heart of the roadblock – and many providers are stepping up to the challenge.

In Blanchardstown, north-west Dublin, for instance, an Equinix data centre has its own gas-fired plant.

Gas-fired plants aren't renewable, but they can be used to support renewable energy sources. This particular plant could, it's argued, free up electricity on the national grid at times of high demand – and in the future, it could run on renewable hydrogen.

Or take the AWS data centre in Tallaght, a suburb of Dublin. Large pipes carry waste heat from the data centre into a building next door. Here, the waste is turned into warm water and used to heat a university and public buildings.

Data centres are also some of the biggest buyers of renewable energy. In this regard, they could support what Chris Kavanagh calls "the twin transitions" of decarbonisation and digitalisation.

The boglands call

What's next for Ireland's data centres? The moratorium on data centre construction in Dublin has led some developers to look to the boglands of central Ireland.

County Offaly is a region of Ireland famed for its bogs and peatlands, comprising some 21% of the county's total land mass.

A government report pitches the region as a site that could foster "thousands of green jobs" and compete with Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris as "an anchor for data centres powered by renewable energy".

It's not just the moratorium that is creating hurdles in Ireland's data centre sector. It's also the planning permission system.

This could be set to change, with the introduction of the Planning and Development Bill 2023. Although this has been passed, it will take time to implement and for its effects to be felt.

Despite these obstacles, Ireland remains a hotbed of data centre activity, attracting talent and investment from multinationals. We'll keep you posted about any major developments.

Are you looking for a cloud strategy consultant in Ireland? Based in Cork, Ascend Cloud Solutions helps global businesses get more from the cloud. Get in touch with our experts today for a free fact-finding consultation.

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