Micheál Martin: Data centres are not the new villain 

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the amount of energy needed to power data centres is not a 'black and white issue'. Picture: Karlis Dzjamko

Data centres "are not the new villain", and "should not be blamed for all our energy problems", according to both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste.

Micheál Martin linked the importance of foreign direct investment and jobs to the question around the vast energy needed to power data centres, claiming it is "not a black and white issue".

Similarly, Leo Varadkar said he is "not a cheerleader for data centres", but claimed "a lot of the facts are not coming across, unfortunately" when it comes to the power and emissions associated with them.

According to Central Statistics Office (CSO) data earlier this year, electricity consumption by data centres increased by 32% between 2020 and 2021, and the increase between January-March 2015 and October-December 2021 was 265%.

The electricity consumption is equivalent to an additional 200,000 homes being powered, according to experts.

Dr Paul Deane, senior research fellow at MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate, and Marine at University College Cork (UCC), said at the time of the CSO figures the power system was "under considerable stress in 2021 with extended outages at major power plants".

"It is clear from the CSO numbers that new data centres added to this difficulty ... the Government must focus on energy and emission reductions," he said.

Data growth

Mr Martin claimed it is possible to reconcile emissions and continued data growth.

"Many of the companies we deal with are actually taking steps to reduce their energy consumption. Also, in terms of renewables, they are investing more. We’ve published a document in respect of data centres — they are not the new villain.

"They are essential in terms of the modern digital world we are in, and it will be a challenge obviously to deal with exponential growth of data and management of that data. Many companies are saying to us in respect of their investment agenda that one cannot simply in black and white terms separate out data centres from their wider investment package — companies like Microsoft, others that provide thousands and thousands of jobs, so it’s not a simple black and white issue that stops one element of activity."

Misconceptions

Mr Varadkar claimed there are misconceptions about data centre power, but conceded the growth needs to "slow down".

"I’m not a cheerleader for data centres, I also don’t think data centres should be blamed for all of our problems with energy. A lot of the facts aren’t coming across unfortunately — 1.7% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from data centres, you’d think it’s a lot more from the way people talk, and 14% of our energy electricity is used for data centres. But it’s lower at peak times, because they run at the same level all of the time. 

"The solution in the medium term at least is a massive increase in the amount of renewable energy that we produce, not just to power data centres, but electric vehicles, all the homes that are going to move to heat pump and electric heating systems, all the businesses that are going to come off gas and move towards electric systems. 

"The real problem is one of inadequate supply, not excess demand. In the interim, we are going to slow down the rate of which data centres are added to the system. That’s agreed by Government."