DUBLIN: Data centres based in Ireland, a European hub for the energy-guzzling facilities, now consume over a fifth of the EU member’s electricity, overtaking that used by all urban Irish homes combined, official statistics showed July 23.

According to Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO), data centres consumed 21% of all metered electricity consumption in 2023, up from 5% in 2015 and 18% in 2022.

For the first time that exceeded electricity consumption in urban homes: 18% in 2023, down from 19% the previous year.

Rural households accounted for 10%.

The results come with increasingly heated debate in Ireland around the energy needs of data centres which house computer storage facilities.

Concerns are rising around the pressure the centres put on the electricity grid, especially as demand accelerates due to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.

Earlier this year Ireland’s grid operator Eirgrid predicted the emergence of looming “electricity supply challenges” for Ireland this decade, in part due to “growth of demand driven by large energy users and data centres”.

By 2028 data centres are projected to consume nearly 30% of Ireland's electricity, according to an International Energy Agency report published in January.

Tech giants such as Google, Meta, Amazon and TikTok already operate some of the more than 80 data centres in Ireland, with several expansions or new facilities in the pipeline.

Ireland’s boom in data centres and tech companies has been powered by its policy of low corporate taxation.

 - AFP