Excess heat from Amazon's new data centre will be diverted to apartments and public buildings

Mike Beary, Amazon Web Services, with South Dublin County Council county architect Eddie Conroy, and chief executive Daniel McLoughlin, announcing the plan to use excess heat from Amazon's newly-completed datacentre to heat a range of buildings locally including affordable apartments. 

Excess heat from a new data centre is to heat 47,000 sq m of public sector buildings, 3,000 sq m of commercial space, and 135 affordable rental apartments in a development hailed as the first of its kind in Ireland. 

South Dublin County Council (SDCC) said it had established Ireland’s first publicly-owned, not-for-profit energy company to provide low-carbon heat to local community buildings after teaming up with Amazon Web Services and Fortum eNext.

The new company, Heatworks, will deliver the Tallaght District Heating Network, estimated when completed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the South Dublin County area by nearly 1,500 tonnes per year.

It will use excess heat from a customisation to Amazon Web Services’ recently-completed data centre, and will begin supplying heat before the end of next year, with initial customers being SDCC and the nearby Tallaght campus of the Technological University Dublin.

The area to be supplied with excess heat is to expand up to 2024.