Oireachtas A.I. Committee to hear evidence on urgent need for Data Centre Moratorium

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence will today hear calls for a moratorium on data centres and need for a prioritisation framework on electricity connections as communities come under increased pressure from hyperscale developments.

Friends of the Earth Ireland will address the committee as Ireland faces at least 700MW of data centre development in planning stages across the country, representing a potential 11% increase to the country’s peak electricity demand. This is the same as adding a county the size of Cork to our grid in the next 2 to 3 years. Friends of the Earth Ireland will tell the committee that the need for this level of data centre expansion is without clear justification, and is locking in a new generation of fossil fuels and bill increases for households.

Data Centre campaign lead Rosi Leonard commented: “The model of hyperscale data centre expansion in Ireland comes with real costs for our electricity system, our climate, our energy bills, our ability to decarbonise our public services, and crucially, the communities who have to live beside these developments.  These impacts are being baked in by current Government policy.”

CEO, Deirdre Duffy commented: “Minister O’Brien himself has stated Ireland is ‘committed to the transition away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy.’ And yet the Government’s model for data centre expansion delivers the very opposite. The most serious impact of this extra demand is the push towards new expensive fossil infrastructure such as the LNG terminal planned for Shannon.”

This hearing comes a week before Kildare County Council will vote on a motion to rezone a significant landbank in Naas which is currently reserved for data centre use only. Local campaign group Naas Data Centre Awareness are campaigning for a moratorium on data centres in Kildare due to significant pressure that mooted developments are forecast to have on the local grid and resources. Just one development planned for the area, Herbata data centre, could triple the electricity demand of the entire county. 

Notes: 

1. Friends of the Earth’s full recommendations to the Committee are: 

   1. A legislative moratorium on new data centre development.

   2. Introduction of a prioritisation framework for electricity connections based on societal need, similar to that of Denmark. This framework would prioritise connections that reduce emissions in line with our climate action plan as well as housing and public services. 

   3. Transpose the European Efficiency Directive with urgency in order to provide greater transparency on the resource use and impacts of existing data centres. Introduce penalties for operators who fail to submit data under Article 12. 

   4. A moratorium on new data centres should only be permitted where they meet strict conditions around bringing additional 24/7 hourly matched renewables, with significant limitations on local water use, overall size and clear justification for buildout.