Coveney: Wind farms that only power data centres instead of homes 'not a bad thing'

Social Democrats climate spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore said the Government was not 'getting the balance right' when it comes to data centres, which are estimated to take up to 30% of the energy supply by 2030.

Wind farms that will only power data centres instead of homes "is not a bad thing" because they are powering the digital economy, Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney has said.

Addressing TDs and senators at the Oireachtas climate committee, Mr Coveney said data centres were "very important to the Irish economy" at the moment and into the future.

He was responding to Social Democrats climate spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore, who said the Government was not "getting the balance right" when it comes to data centres, which are estimated to take up to 30% of the energy supply by 2030.

The growth of data centre energy usage over the past decade has been the source of much political debate.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) from earlier this year show electricity consumption by data centres rose 31% between 2021 and 2022. 

The increase between January to March 2015 and October to December 2022 was 400%, the CSO said. The percentage of metered electricity consumed by data centres rose from 5% in 2015 to 18% in 2022.

Ms Whitmore said approval for connection to a wind farm off Wicklow was given this week for a data centre in Arklow.

When that wind farm was first spoken about years ago, they were trying to market it as providing enough electricity for 830,000 homes. Now it will be providing enough energy for one data centre that employs 30 to 40 people. 

"I get your point that it is not just about the people employed directly in data centres, and that there is obviously a wider indirect benefit, but the question is if we have enough of the right kind of data centres. I don't think we do," she said to Mr Coveney.

Date centres will end up taking renewable energy that should be used for homes in Ireland, she said.

"At some stage we have to say we are taking far too many of these data centres," she said.

Mr Coveney said "there is no digital economy without data centres" in Ireland.

"All sectors of the economy are moving onto digital platforms. If we want to develop a resilient economy in the future that can protect the quality of life that we have in Ireland, that can provide the kind of employment that many young people now have, and the career opportunities that they have and so on, if we want to attract the best companies in the world to come to Ireland to develop new products here, whether it is in pharma or in tech or medtech, data is central to everything," he said.

Judging data centres on the number of people directly employed in them "completely misses the point", he said.

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A lot of the funding for renewable energy projects comes from companies that use data centres, he said, adding the assumption should not be made that there is billions of euros "out there that will build wind farms all over the place easily".

At the same time, there is "no open door" for data centre development without any restrictions or limitations, Mr Coveney said.

The energy use of data centres is a very serious issue that needs to be overcome, he said.