LAST UPDATE | 55 mins ago

AS VOTERS GO to the polls across the US today, one election issue that politicians didn’t see coming was the rising anger over data centres. Until recently, communities across the US may not have known what data centres were, but a major increase in their construction, driven by the global AI race, has prompted many to push back against these energy-guzzling mega-structures.

Data centres have now become what some are calling ‘political napalm’, with concerns ranging from their use of resources like water and energy to noise pollution and worries from local farmers about the impact on their land. Even in deep MAGA country, data centres are a tough sell, offering very little return for struggling communities during a cost of living crisis. 

According to the global Data Centers Map, there are over 13,000 data centres in the world today, with over 5,000 in the US alone. But drill down into the global figures, and you will see an interesting picture emerge in relation to Ireland. 

A global picture of data centre development, with 135 in Ireland. datacentermap.com datacentermap.com

We now have an estimated 135 data centres in this country, which positions Ireland as a major player in the EU when it comes to the construction of these structures. Almost a quarter (23%) of electricity goes to data centres in Ireland, the highest per capita in the world.

If all the data centres in the planning pipeline received permission, it would add approximately 700MW of energy demand in a few short years. That is similar to dropping a county the size of Cork onto our grid, just for Big Tech, at a time when we are already, according to the UN, a “cautionary tale” when it comes to data centre development.

Communities fight back

That rapid development in Ireland has brought a fresh concentration of minds here, too, with some communities now mobilising against the planning and construction of data centres in their area. 

Such concerns over the impact of data centres on energy use and the environment are far from a “conspiracy theory” or a “hoax”, as the tech sector would have you........

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