Locals affected by Ireland's AI data centre boom share 'cautionary tales'

There has been a growing backlash across Dublin as data centres chew up the country's energy and water supplies. (Supplied: Friends of the Earth) Link copiedShareShare articleHumming on the outskirts of Dublin, dozens of massive data centres are chewing through more electricity than all the urban homes in Ireland. Jess Spear lives down the road from Grange Castle in South Dublin, one of the country's largest data centre precincts. She walks past one of the "hyper-scale" facilities on her way to work everyday. "It looks like a giant prison," Ms Spear told the ABC. "It's incredibly intimidating with big high gates behind it, barely any windows … it pollutes the landscape to be honest." The Microsoft data centre at Grange Castle business park was the first to open in 2009. (Supplied: Jess Spear) Ms Spear, who sits on the local council for the People Before Profit political party, said some residents could hear the constant buzz of the facilities at night. But the presence of the data centres was far more than a "NIMBY"(not in my backyard) issue. "The main thing that upsets the public is that we are subsidising these behemoths," she said. Jess Spear says data centre growth in the region is having stark environmental impacts. (Supplied: Jess Spear) While many may not associate its cobblestone streets and 12th century roots as a backdrop for big tech, Dublin is known as the "Silicon Valley of Europe". It has long been home to the continental headquarters of industry giants such as Google, Meta, Apple and Microsoft. It now also has one of the largest data centre clusters in the world, with more than 120 dotted around Dublin and the surrounding countryside. The government pursued the development of the facilities to help fuel big tech's artificial intelligence (AI) operations, calling it another "strategic opportunity for the economy". Jess Spear, holding the black banner, says Ireland's runaway AI data centre growth needs to stop. (Supplied: Jess Spear) Data centres now account for 21 per cent of Ireland's total metered electricity and are projected to grow to 30 per cent by 2030, according to a report by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. The report cited Ireland as a "cautionary tale" for the rest of the world, highlighting the environmental impact and knock-on effects of runaway AI growth. Tallaght, a bustling county town in South Dublin, sits in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains and is traversed by the River Dodder. Ms Spear said it was a place where residents had a strong connection to the land around them. So the "explosion" of data centres had been jarring. Tallaght locals value the abundance of nature surrounding the town and the wider region. (Supplied: Jess Spear) Microsoft opened Grange Castle's first data centre in 2009. Soon after, enormous complexes built by Amazon, Google, Microsoft and other companies expanded around the ruined castle that anchors the business park. The facilities now span more than 200 hectares. The Grange Castle business park now covers more than 200 hectares. (Supplied: Ben Ryan Photography) Albert Perris, a local historian and author from Tallaght, said the expansion had "tipped into a new space". "A lot of development was welcome, and it was very progressive, but at some point there needed to be some constraints," he told the ABC. Albert Perris leads a walking tour of Tallaght and discusses the centre's impact on the town. (Supplied: Albert Perris) Mr Perris said the increasing water usage and environmental impacts were a big concern and locals were paying the price. "Electricity prices have absolutely soared for domestic users in Ireland over the last five or six years," he said. "So there is a growing resentment and a growing realisation that the arrival and the development of the centres is not without a very real personal cost." Albert Perris says many Tallaght locals initially welcomed the data centres, but the expansion was changing the town's identity. (Supplied: Albert Perris) Last month, Friends of The Earth released a report with Beyond Fossil Fuels that found the average Irish household might have paid an estimated €360 ($589) in additional electricity costs between 2015 and 2023 due to the "intensity of data centre presence" on Ireland's Single Electricity Market grid. Cumulatively for all Irish households, the data centre price effect was as high as €715 million ($1.2 million), the research suggested. Last year, global data centres used 448 trillion watt-hours of electricity, according to the UN report. The world's biggest tech titans see Australia as a promising investment opportunity for their AI ambitions, but some fear the federal government's regulatory retreat could lead to harm. If it were a country, it would have ranked 11th in the world for electricity consumption in 2025, roughly on par with France. "If you look at these numbers, we're seeing scales comparable to nations,"

Locals affected by Ireland's AI data centre boom share 'cautionary tales'

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Locals affected by Ireland's AI data centre boom share 'cautionary tales'

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