IN CONTEXT: Ireland has slowly become one of Europe’s leading technology hubs. The island hosts dozens of giant data centers, and they require a substantial amount of energy to keep those bit streams flowing.Data centers could use as much as a third of Ireland’s energy supply by 2026
A recent report by Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) highlights the explosive growth of energy consumption in data centers. The electricity required by data center operators increased by 20 percent between 2022 and 2023, and the total metered energy consumption equaled 21 percent of Ireland’s capacity in 2023.
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Data centers now exceed the energy needs of both urban and rural households, which accounted for 18 percent and 10 percent of total metered electricity consumption, respectively. In 2023, the CSO recorded a truly unprecedented increase in power required by Ireland’s data centers, rising from 290 gigawatt hours in 2015 to 1,661 gigawatt hours, a staggering 473 percent increase.Data centers could use as much as a third of Ireland’s energy supply by 2026
Ireland currently hosts 82 data centers, with 14 more under construction and another 40 planned for the next few years. Thanks to its low corporate tax rates and several transatlantic cables connecting Europe to the US, the country has attracted a significant portion of EU investments from the world’s largest technology companies.
A recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned about the growing global energy demand by data centers, which could double in just a couple of years. By 2026, Ireland may be forced to reserve almost a third of its entire energy supply (32 percent) for data center operators alone.
Ireland recently set an ambitious goal to combat human-made climate change, aiming for a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Data centers still rely heavily on electricity generated by burning fossil fuels, and generative AI is further driving up energy consumption in Ireland and globally.
Energy consumption by so-called “AI data centers” could double by 2030, recent reports estimate, putting unprecedented stress on energy grids and potentially leading to widespread blackouts and reliability issues. However, some in the IT industry remain optimistic. Bill Gates has suggested that AI could reduce energy consumption, and Google is hopeful about AI’s ability to mitigate its own environmental impact.Data centers could use as much as a third of Ireland’s energy supply by 2026
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