Ireland has become a “data dumping ground” for big tech

Ireland has become a "data dumping ground" for big tech companies, new research claims, and it's only going to get worse as AI drives an expansion of data centers using fossil fuels.

That's according to a report by University College Cork, commissioned by Friends of the Earth, into the impact of data centers on Ireland, which has long drawn big tech names thanks to lower tax rates.

The rise of AI has sparked huge demand for more energy to power higher-performance data centers, with Gartner predicting 40% of operators will face constraints in power availability.

The issue has reached such an extent that big AI developers including AWS and Google are turning to nuclear power.

The report found that electricity demand from data centers had grown annually by 23% since 2015, compared to less than half a percent for other industries. The study also showed that data centers in Ireland use a fifth of the country's electricity supply.

Previous figures from Ireland's Central Statistics Office suggested that electricity use by data centers was up by a third between 2021 and 2022, and 400% from 2015, with sites chewing through 18% of the nation's electricity by 2022.

Damning data demand

The increase in data center demand could knock Ireland off course for its climate action plan, the report warned. All of the wind generated by Ireland between 2017 and 2023 was outpaced by data center energy growth, meaning that investment in power generation had not contributed to net reductions in fossil fuel use.

"The current trajectory of data center demand is incompatible with Ireland’s climate commitments," noted Hannah Daly, author of the report and professor at University College Cork. "Data centers are growing far faster than the renewable energy procured to meet their needs."

Notably, Daly said data centers are using natural gas in their hunt for more power, including building on-site gas generation and applying for direct connection to the gas grid.

"This is prolonging Ireland’s dependency on fossil fuels and will make legally binding carbon budgets unachievable," Daly said. "This underscores the need for policy interventions that ensure renewables displace fossil fuels rather than fueling new demand."

Rosi Leonard, data center campaigner with Friends of the Earth Ireland, said there are regions of Ireland where Meta has bought the entire electricity output of solar farms for data centers, leaving homes reliant on oil, peat and coal.

“Ireland has allowed itself to become a data dumping ground for corporations like Amazon and Meta. This is creating stark inequalities in our energy system whereby data centers are hoovering up the limited clean energy that is currently deployed," she said in a statement.

"We need a moratorium on data centers in Ireland now before this problem gets any worse.”

Big tech no longer a “force for good” in Ireland

Leonard added that big tech must no longer be "uncritically and incorrectly accepted as an unquestioned force for good" in Ireland.

"It is clear from this research that the sustainable and simultaneously unlimited growth of data centers is a myth,” she added.

Friends of the Earth called for the government to enforce power grid connection policies and keep them aligned with carbon budgets, and to mandate emissions reporting for data centers.

The report will add fuel to political debate about the rise of data centers in Ireland and their impact on the country's ability to reach its net-zero emissions goals.

Earlier this year, environment and enterprise ministers clashed in a cabinet meeting over calls for all future data centers to be blocked unless they have their own source of carbon-neutral energy.