Energy subsidies for data centres are facing growing scrutiny in Ireland as households and businesses confront rising fuel costs and the prospect of a difficult winter. The technology sector is expected to receive taxpayer-funded support for its electricity bills, despite the pressures facing farmers, manufacturers, hauliers, retailers and families.
The issue comes as Simon Harris and Jack Chambers prepare next week’s budget, with the cost of energy expected to affect wages, prices and household finances regardless of any measures announced.
Data centres have become a major part of Ireland’s economy and public finances, but their electricity and water consumption has also increased sharply. Google operates the country’s largest single facility, Grange Castle 2 in Dublin, which covers almost 327,000 square feet.
The centre is significantly larger than the average Irish family home, but its impact extends beyond its physical size. Data centres operate continuously, consuming substantial amounts of electricity and water while producing carbon emissions and noise.
They store and process the social media posts, messages, photographs, streaming files, mobile applications, web pages and online shopping services used by millions of people. Ireland has consequently become one of Europe’s biggest data-centre hubs.
Last year, data centres accounted for almost a quarter of the country’s total electricity output and used as much treated drinking water as 340,000 homes. During the hot, dry summer, households and ordinary businesses faced mandatory restrictions on water use, while no equivalent limit was imposed on data centres.
Data-centre expansion drives US backlash
The debate has also spread to the United States, where opposition to new data centres is emerging as an issue ahead of the midterm elections. Concerns have focused both on their environmental impact and on the expansion of artificial intelligence, which is driving demand for additional facilities.
Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders has called for a halt to all new data-centre development. “People are looking around worried about how quickly the technology is moving, how little control they have over it, how will data centres impact their community in terms of electric rates and water utilisation,” he said.
A recent US poll found that respondents were more opposed to living near a data centre than to living near a nuclear power plant. The finding reflects concern about the effect of large facilities on local electricity prices, water supplies and communities.
The expansion is being driven largely by demand for artificial intelligence. Experts in the field have warned of a 10 per cent possibility that AI could wipe out humanity within the decade, while leading companies race to develop what has been described as “self-improving superintelligence”.
Jacob Coxon, described as a leading expert, said the companies were pursuing technology that could make human input unnecessary and were “gambling with our lives”.
The prospect of tax breaks and energy subsidies for the technology industry has therefore added to concerns over the cost of supporting an expansion that is placing increasing demands on electricity and water supplies.
