The rapid expansion of data centres in Ireland is driving up household electricity bills and deepening the country’s dependence on fossil fuels, a new report commissioned by Friends of the Earth Ireland and Beyond Fossil Fuels has suggested.
According to the report, The Cost of Data Centres: Modelling the Household Electricity Costs of Ireland’s Data Centre Sector, Ireland’s growing data centre network drained an estimated €715 million from the economy between 2015 and 2023, through higher electricity costs.
As a result of this expansion, Ireland’s poorest households paid an extra €209 in electricity bills between 2021 and 2023, the report claims. In the event of another global energy shock – akin to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or a further conflict in the Middle East – could lead to additional costs linked to data centre expansion rising by €1.6 billion over the next decade.
‘A warning for Europe’
“The Irish case should be a warning for Europe: letting Big Tech expand data centres unchecked will have massive ripple effects on the economy and European households,” commented Jill McArdle, international corporate campaigner at Beyond Fossil Fuels. “Combined with fossil gas, this creates a toxic mix – driving up energy prices for people already struggling through another energy crisis.”
“European decision makers are pressing ahead with plans for rapid data centre expansion, with too few or weak safeguards to prevent deeper reliance on gas that drives up costs. Even Trump, under intense pressure from voters, has acknowledged that Big Tech should pay its own energy bills. Unless data centres are required to be powered by additional renewable energy, they could lock Europe into volatile and expensive fossil gas.”
Data centres currently account for more than a fifth (22%) of electricity in Ireland, meaning the country boasts the highest per-capita data centre electricity demand in the world among reported nations.
The report recommends putting limits on future data centre growth, accelerating renewable energy deployment and requiring data centres to reduce electricity demand during peak periods.
Data centre growth
“Our modelling shows that the high, growing, and inflexible nature of data centres’ electricity demand increases the number of hours in which gas sets the price in the Irish power system, driving up electricity costs,” commented postdoctoral researcher Dr Seán Fearon, author of the report.
“Historical evidence suggests this effect becomes even more pronounced during energy shocks, with the combination of high data centre demand and gas dependency significantly amplifying price spikes due to energy insecurity. Projections for the coming decade indicate that limiting data centre demand while accelerating renewable energy deployment could save the average Irish household an estimated hundreds of euros cumulatively between 2025 and 2034.”
The report comes as the European Commission weighs up new proposals aimed at tripling data centre capacity over the next five to seven years. Read more here.
