Council extends planning permission for two data centre buildings in Cork

It comes as data centres begin to consume a greater share of Ireland’s electricity

Artist impression of a planned data centre on the former Mitsui Denman site in Little Island which first had planning permission granted back in 2017 and has already had the permission extended once, to the end of 2025.

A developer has been given the green light to extend planning permission for two data centre buildings in Cork after a “significant delay” in reaching an agreement to connect the centres to the electricity grid.

The former Mitsui Denman site in Little Island first had planning permission granted for the data centres back in 2017 and has already had the permission extended once, to the end of 2025.

Progressive Commercial Construction Ltd applied to Cork County Council in January to again extend the duration of the planning permission for another two years.

While the bulk of Ireland’s data centre developments are based in the greater Dublin area, recent years have seen further expansions in other parts of the country. At the same time, such data centres have also begun to consume a greater share of Ireland’s electricity.

Figures published last summer by the Central Statistics Office showed the amount of electricity consumed by data centres in Ireland jumped by 20% in just one year.

It showed that data centres consumed more electricity than urban homes, with consumption of electricity up 400% from data centres since 2015.

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While advocates have urged the Government to move away from data centres, given their environmental impact, the recent Programme for Government said it wanted to “scale up investment” in the electricity grid which will “enhance the data centre footprint”.

The Cork site now under development had previously been in heavy industrial use since the 1970s by electrolytic manganese dioxide producers, the Japanese firm Mitsui Denman, who wound up operations there on a 100-acre holding in 2003.

An application submitted to the council on the developer’s behalf envisaged that the first data centre building would be completed in April 2024 and the second by October 2025.

It said: “There is no statutory time period for ESB Networks to issue grid letters of offer. This was completely outside the control of the applicant. 

"The ESB Networks application was submitted in January 2021, however, due to various consultation processes conducted by the [energy regulator] on data centres, a connection agreement was not issued until 18th July, 2024.” 

It said, notwithstanding the delay in securing this agreement with ESB Networks, the first data centre has been fully constructed at an investment of over €14.2m with only the fit-out yet to be completed.

“It is worth noting that this letter of offer is the first to be issued by ESB Networks for a data centre in a number of years and the project represents a strategic opportunity for the region to support the digital infrastructure requirements of both national and international companies,” it added.

Cork County Council last week granted unconditional permission for the extension through to 2027.