VIEW POINT (anon): I know very little about Data Centres, I have never actually visited one, but I do know that they consume a staggering 20% of all electricity generated in Ireland. In that sense they directly affect each and every one of us. It might surprise us to know that they consume more electricity than all of the electricity used by domestic dwellings in all of our towns and cities. In Ireland we have more than eighty data centres and their high energy consumption risked outpacing the available electricity supply in the Dublin area leading to a pause on the further locating of data centres in Dublin.
This has presented a problem for the government who on the one hand wants to encourage technology companies locating here but on the other hand wants energy consumption to stay within โclimate limitsโ. This has proven to be a fracture line between the Green Partyโs net carbon zero policy and their coalition partners policy of encouraging technology companies locating to Ireland. Minister of Climate and Communications Mr Ryan has met recently with all the technology companies to remind them of their climate obligations but failed to suggest a strategy that would mitigate their disproportionate carbon footprint. His meeting was probably โopticsโ aimed at the Green Party membership, wag a finger at a โbad boyโ carbon producer without suggesting a carbon moderating strategy and the membership seem happy that the โclimateโ flag is waved. In an interview with the Financial Times Minister Ryan stated that he wants to facilitate technology companies and he wants to keep them within the climate limits that the government has committed to. Obviously he didnโt say how these polar opposites can be combined.
Currently 1% of all electricity generated worldwide is consumed by data centres. This is set to double by 2026 but obviously some countries like own own are very ahead of this global statistic as we are on 20% as previously said. The real problem is that there is a limit on how much โgreenโ electricity can be produced worldwide. The easy way to produce electricity is by burning fossil fuels and that is the way most data centres will get their electricity generated going forward. It is worth remembering that currently there are about one hundred coal fired power stations under construction worldwide mainly in Asia. They seem to get a blanket derogation from the ParIs Protocols on Climate while we pay the full price of this imposed ideological pseudoscience.
Electricity is needed for the operation of the data centre but also for cooling purposes. Therefore there is an energy advantage to locate them in
very cold climates, even the Artic. Again siting these centres in pristine parts of the world is damaging to the environment. Our dilemma must be do we risk exceeding our power supply, do we burn more fossil fuels to generate conventional electricity or export the problem to the Artic.
Some technology companies consume more energy than many countries. For example both Google and Microsoft consume 24 TWh of power whereas a medium sized nation state like Slovakia consumes just slightly more at 26 TWh. It is estimated that their combined consumption exceeds the individual consumption of 100 nation states. Data centres come at a heavy price according to climate theory. Yet their absence sets us at a technological disadvantage according to many technology insiders. Amazon Web Services that is well represented in Ireland is pausing its investment and diverting โฌ8 billion to constructing data centres in the UK and the rest of Europe. If we want to stay in the data centre business we need to vastly increase our capacity to generate electricity and wind wonโt do it. Minister Ryan met his UK opposite number, Ed Miliband, last week and what was agreed was more electricity interconnectors to the UK. A very Green Party solution, let the UK take the carbon hit, pay them well and we can pretend to be squeaky clean. Is this hypocrisy or hypocrisy because it is not honesty?