Datacenters guzzled more than a fifth of Ireland's electricity in 2023 Datacenters consumed more than a fifth of Ireland's electricity supply during 2023, according to the latest figures from the republic's Central Statistics Office (CSO). The news comes amid growing concerns over the expanding energy demands of the bit barn industry. Ireland has become something of a bellwether for datacenter …
The amount of power being consumed by data centres (worldwide, not just in Ireland) is fast reaching an unsustainable level. In this day where more and more action is being taken to reduce carbon emissions and hence lower the threat of global warming, can we really afford huge data centres literally consuming megawatts of power each? I know that some data centres have attempted to go green (using sustainable power sources), but what we are seeing is but a drop in the ocean.
I think that governments should mandate the use of green power sources for all data centres (existing and new ones). If a data centre cannot or will not comply with this demand, then it is not simply not allowed to operate.
I would posit that.its already past sustainable usage in then areas they are distributed, they are not even globally.
I have heard from inside the ESB that we have come worryingly close to a grid failure. A few times. Worying for the ESB, in then way that they feared they would not be able to spin up power quick enough to compensate for the surges in power.
This previously was not as much of an issue, it was easier to predict based on people movements when you might need extra power, but that's is becoming harder with the breakdown of "normal" office 9-5s not being as common as they were.
Unfortunately what was have is internal competition, lack of cooperation and simple no communication. The DCs are competing against literally the entire countries other energy needs, the planning and grid companies down cooperate, but rather approve the planning and shovel the requirement on to others after to get it done, and they plain don't talk to each other over what is where and available when.
If the grid is under pressure eirgrid sends a notice to the data centers and the disconnect and they go to generators. They will always offload DCs before residential.
I don't understand why people act like DCs are bullies "takin all our power". Like they need permission to connect to the grid etc
Let's just play this out a little.
Where does that permission come from? And what are the gains for those that grand said permission?
You are not wrong in your assertion, but the muddy background is where the problems are in these situations. One good very recent example was Marian Agrees who pulled their objection of housing planning after receiving €15,000 in cash, and another €15,000 in home renovations.
https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2024/05/28/fine-gael-election-candidate-for-louth-leaves-race-after-receiving-money-for-withdrawing-objection-to-housing-development/
Last year RTÉ ran a story on two brothers who were frequent objectors to planning applications in Ireland. These objections were said to disappear if a payment was made. It appears to be viewed by the developers as a cost of doing business.
https://www.rte.ie/news/investigations-unit/2023/1203/1419888-the-self-styled-ngo-withdrawing-planning-appeals-for-cash/
Thinking about it a bit, there is nothing that wrong in withdrawing or not making planning appeals in return for cash *as long as there is a real material interest*. Whenever there is any new project, there are local people who are materially going to be negatively affected by physically having a new development in their immediate neighborhood. Then there are other people or groups who will just object to anything and everything out of principle, general pigheadedness or, as you describe these 2 shakedown artists, simply to scam some cash, even if it won't really materially affect them (In practice any brown/greenfield development will have environmental objectors because of some unique species of worm, spider, bird etc that happens to live in that very specific square mile of land. Giving in to these objections would mean we never ever get anything built).
Simple solution is to limit the people or organisations who can register planning appeals to anyone living within a couple of miles in rural areas and a quarter mile in urban areas*. If these people can be 'bought off', what it really means is that the compensation the locals receive (either in cash or in concessions around redesign of the project) is of at least equivalent value to the negative externalities generated by the project. If the project is still viable after those additional costs are accounted for, that's a win-win for both the neighborhood and the developers. If the project is not viable after those additional costs are accounted for, it simply wasn't a good project anyway.
*just an example, I'm sure it would need to be a bit more complex than that
"governments should mandate the use of green power sources for all data centres (existing and new ones)"
I agree with the sentiment, not with the practicality. Electrons are electrons, it's not like you can know that the ones powering your datacenter came from solar not from oil. And why should one type of industry be singled out? Should chemical or pharmaceutical industries not also use green energy? Heavy industry? Construction? Shipbuilding? Chip manufacturing? It would be unnecessarily messy, (not to mention uncompetitive) to single out one industry for 'punishment' because they are heavy electricity users. Because, and maybe some Irish readers might correct me here, but I think that while these datacenters consume 20% of Ireland's electricity, they are directly or indirectly responsible for an even bigger chunk of GDP
Far better to simply promote and invest in no or low-carbon energy supply and availability across the whole power generation and distribution infrastructure. And in case it's not 100% clear, there is only one way to have a vast and reliable no-carbon supply, and that is a big nuclear baseload capacity.
updating for context to add this, (from 2023, so the current figures might be even higher):
"The importance of the ICT sector to the Irish economy has increased steadily over time and today it accounts for just under one-fifth of Gross Value Added (GVA), 9.6 per cent of the economy-wide wage bill, 6.4 per cent of employment and just under one-quarter of corporation tax revenue"
(https://www.centralbank.ie/docs/default-source/publications/quarterly-bulletins/quarterly-bulletin-signed-articles/the-role-of-ict-services-sector-irish-economy.pdf)
So the ICT sector is accounting for 20% of GVA and 25% of corporate tax, for around 20% of electricity consumption.
(Granted not all of the ICT sector is linked to the bit barns, but probably quite a large chunk)
Ireland’s GDP numbers are mostly meaningless. This isn’t fraud on the part of the government, they openly say they are meaningless. The money mostly goes into an Irish bank account and straight back out again.
The question is, how many jobs do these data centres create, and the answer is, not many. Some cleaners and security guards, and an extra customer for local businesses that do HVAC and basic computer maintenance.
According to the article, the power usage in 2023 was... 21 percent to data centers. 18 percent to urban households. 10 percent to rural households. This is a clear attempt to influence the reader to view data centers as the hungry lion versus their precious homes.
Where is the other 51 percent of the power going?? The source document seems to only focus on Data Centers, and makes no obvious mention of other power usage. Does the bulk of energy go to something like "Industry", and aren't Data Centers simply a different form of industrial power usage?
It is not possible to develop an informed opinion about Data Center power consumption without a complete picture of energy usage. Are other sectors of Ireland's electrical usage trending down as this country continues to position itself as a tech center? Why is the rest of the power consumption data omitted from this article, unless that data does not support the author's narrative?
Industry, retail, offices, agriculture, aviation, warehousing, street lighting,....
You know everything else you find in a country.
If you can't work out that a 82 locations are consuming more power than 5 million people, you're either a shill, or can't grasp the concept of the stupid amount of power is being consumed
Well, Irelands electricity usage as a whole has increased by 20% over past ten years. U.K. electricity usage has *decreased* by 15% over the same time. But the important question is whether the infrastructure has been built to support the demand. Neither higher or lower usage is a bad thing per se.
I’d be more than happy if, for example, the U.K. increased its total energy consumption by 20% over the next ten years, driven by AI consumption in the DC. So long as that corresponded to a genuine large productivity gain, and GDP increase of say 30%. If however, the AI increased our productivity by only 1%, even if there were “extra 10% jobs in AI”, we shouldn’t be prepared to increase our energy consumption by even 2%.None of this should be remotely controversial. And yet in todays world, both of statements appear to be highly inflammatory to one side or the other.
"...total metered electricity consumption by datacenters in the Emerald Isle..."
I noticed this phrase, assuming it to mean consumption drawn from the grid. Does that mean that if a datacenter has it's own eg solar farm, that this consumption would not show up on the stats? In any case, it seems that the trend will be for datacenters to generate their own power through eg SMRs
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