A UN report has described Ireland’s data centre problem as a cautionary tale for the rest of the world.
The report, which looks at the environmental impacts of the constant growth AI, highlighted the severe strain that data centres are place on Ireland’s grid.
Many of the points made by the report, are the same as those made by Lynn Boylan, Sinn Féin’s MEP for Dublin, who has long been sounding the alarm about these centres and their impact here.
The fact that data centres use 50% of the energy produced in Dublin, and look set to hit 30% of energy nationally has been repeatedly highlighted by Lynn who said that the ‘hands-off’ approach from the government has left Ireland with huge issues around data centres.
“Not only do these centres drive up the price of electricity for households, but they pay less than half the price that households do for this electricity.
“On top of this, the amount of pressure they put on the grid, while contributing much less to its maintenance and upkeep, is actually making it harder to even build homes in Dublin.
Lynn said that along with the economic problems, there was also huge climate and environmental concerns from these data centres.
“These centres use absolutely enormous amounts of water and electricity.
“This means that the sheer amount of energy they consume forces us to use more fossil fuels as a result.
“In addition, the proposal to let ‘self-powered’ data centres sell their own generated energy back into the grid, at inflated prices will also see more fossil fuels consumed, since this is what’s being used by these ‘self-powered’ systems in the centres.”
Lynn said that It adds insult to injury that in the same week that a €100,000 government report into data centres manages to barely list any negatives associated with them, a report from the UN actually cites Ireland, and our experiences with them as a cautionary tale, that’s far out of step with international norms.
