Data Centre Delay - Tracking the Transposition of the Energy Efficiency Directive in Ireland and across Europe

In 2023, the EU overhauled the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) to enshrine an “Efficiency First” approach across sectors, including data centres, to meet the 55% emissions reduction target by 2030. Growth in data centre demand makes it likely that Ireland will substantially overshoot its EED reduction targets. 

One of the first measures of this directive was the creation of an EU database of data centres across the region to capture key sustainability metrics. Three years after its introduction into EU law, only 18 of Ireland’s 123 data centres have reported to the mandatory EU Database, with none visible on the public-facing dashboard. Ireland is now 11 months past its deadline to transpose the recast Energy Efficiency Directive and could face sanctions if it fails to do so. As a result, Ireland is currently in an active infringement case with the EU Commission for its failure to transpose the recast Energy Efficiency Directive by the October 11th 2025 deadline. 

Ireland’s failure to transpose the relevant EU directives in a timely manner has created a regulatory grey area in which data centres are failing to report at scale due to the absence of financial penalties.