Vantage Data Centers is joining the crowded Irish datacenter market with its first site in the Emerald Isle due to come online in 2024. In view of ongoing power constraints in the country, the project is to include on-site power generation.

Ireland already has more than 80 bit barns in the country, many of them clustered around the capital, Dublin. Vantage is no different, saying its flagship DUB1 Irish campus will be located on a 22-acre site at Profile Park, Grange Castle.

Datacenters and their energy consumption have become a thorny issue in Ireland over the past several years.

A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) earlier this year estimated that the growing number of datacenters could account for 32 percent of Ireland's electricity use by 2026, although this was disputed by the country's power grid operator, EirGrid.

Vantage seems to have taken this on board as its 52 MW Dublin campus is planned to include an on-site generation plant that, we're told, will be able to "alleviate pressure on energy demand from the grid, given the temporary power constraints in Dublin," according to the company.

It isn't clear whether this means the site will be entirely self-powered, or if the on-site plant will supplement electricity supplied by the Irish energy grid, perhaps during periods of peak demand. We asked Vantage and will update if we get an answer.

However, the 100 MVA generation plant will be able to run on a combination of fuels, Vantage claims, primarily hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) or gas supplied by Gas Networks Ireland. In addition, the plant is expected to be able to funnel power back to the grid, further supporting power availability in the Dublin area.

This is a growing trend among bit barn operators, with Microsoft announcing "grid-interactive UPS technology" for its Dublin facility back in 2022 which could feed energy back to the grid.

Digital Realty also detailed proposals this month for its Dublin-based datacenters to do the same, allowing it to monetize backup energy storage systems that are often seen as underutilized assets.

Like Digital Realty, Vantage plans to use HVO in place of diesel to fuel backup generators and says it is working to obtain corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs) for green energy, such as biomethane from local providers. The company claims it is currently using HVO for 99 percent of fuel requirements during the DUB1 construction phase.

The campus itself will initially comprise one 32 MW datacenter hall plus a second 20 MW facility, with Vantage claiming it has the available land and power to expand to a third in the future. The first phase is expected to be operational in late 2024.

The Register reported this month that power constraints in the Dublin area are causing cloud operators in Ireland such as AWS to ration compute resources that customers can use. This is backed up by a report from the Irish Independent that found some digital services were being redirected out of Ireland due to the constrained power capacity.

According to the paper, datacenter giant Equinix made the claims as part of an appeal against a council decision to refuse planning permission for a new Dublin bit barn. Equinix had changed its application to a facility powered by gas after being turned down for an electricity grid connection to the site by power company ESB Networks. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/04/30/vantage_dublin_datacenter/