Experts warn AI data centres could increase fossil fuel dependence in Ireland

General views of Meta's Data center in Clonee Co Meath. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Ireland’s data centre expansion will “erode our progress” in cutting dependency on fossil fuels, experts have said, after a UN report described the country as a “cautionary tale” for such an approach.

The report, published on Wednesday, said Ireland is a small country with an “outsized data-centre load”, and that its experience highlights the need for responsible siting and capacity planning so that rapid artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure growth does not outpace local power systems.

“As Ireland expands energy- and water-intensive AI data-centre infrastructure around Dublin, growing cooling and power demands risk adding further pressure to already stressed freshwater supplies,” it added.

Reacting to the report, Irish-based experts said it was a timely reminder of the inherent risks that data centre expansion poses to emissions targets and energy infrastructure.

Professor Hannah Daly, from the School of Engineering and Architecture at University College Cork (UCC), said AI is driving an unprecedented surge in power demand and is largely being powered by fossil fuels.

“Data centres for AI applications in particular are now so energy intensive and place such pressure on the electricity grid that they often have to be built with on-site fossil fuel plants,” she said.

“A requirement that data centres finance renewables projects will largely not offset on-site fossil fuel or its emissions. This trend and weak environmental regulation are eroding Ireland’s progress in cutting fossil fuel dependency and meeting legally-binding carbon budgets.” 

Dr Nick Scroxton, research fellow at the ICARUS Climate Research Centre, said that Ireland, and Dublin in particular, is currently “creaking at the seams” when it comes to electricity and water supply.

“New data centres for AI risk stressing both these systems at the financial and physical detriment of the population, as well as undoing the progress we've made on our existing renewables,” he said.

“The years of delays in our planning system that result in a lack of offshore wind generation limit the electricity grid's ability to absorb data centres, and results in more fossil fuel use.” 

The UN report was published in the same week as the Government released a report from KPMG, which suggested data centres are a “critical component of Ireland’s digital infrastructure” that supports jobs and investment. Enterprise minister Peter Burke said it underpinned the Government’s approach to data centre growth.

However, the KPMG report also suggests that transparency around data centres is key to tackling growing public opposition, which Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan said is essential after the Government published what she described as a “glossy report” on the topic.

“The minister needs to spell out, after spending a hundred grand of taxpayers’ money on a consultant, if he’ll finally do what Sinn Féin have been advising him to do for free,” she said.

“Enact the crucial transparency laws to let the public see how much water and energy individual data centres use.”