Letters

Data centres and climate crisis

Unsustainable growth of data centres is strangling our ability to meet critical carbon targets

Fri Dec 01 2023 - 00:10

Sir, – Peter Lantry, managing director for Ireland of data centre operator Equinix, writes that increasing the number of data centres in Ireland will help rather than hinder our chances of meeting carbon targets (“Data centre moratorium could strangle digital growth and impact carbon targets”, Business, Opinion, November 27th).

This is a remarkable statement considering that 18 per cent of electricity used in Ireland in 2022 was used by data centres. This may rise to 30 per cent by 2030. In contrast, data centres account for 1 per cent of electricity consumption globally, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Ireland is already an international outlier, and that is before considering the emissions associated with the construction of data centres and their energy-generating infrastructure.

So how are data centres the solution rather than the problem here?

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One reason Mr Lantry proposes is data centres bring investment in renewable resources.

Yet the pace of growth of data centres has far outstripped the construction of the promised renewable energy infrastructure needed to make data centres “green”.

This has placed huge strain on the electricity grid and brought a reliance on non-renewable energy.

Another reason suggested is that Ireland needs data centres to support the vital data of modern life, including running hospitals, streaming, email, etc.

The digital health data needs of the Irish health system are frustratingly low and Ireland already has many more data centres than required to meet the other data needs of “everyday life”.

Finally, he proposes that the country will miss out on foreign direct investment if more data centres are not built. It is absurd to suggest Ireland must play host to a hugely disproportionate amount of the world’s data centres to avoid threatening investment.

The unsustainable growth of data centres is strangling our ability to meet critical carbon targets, and a moratorium on their development is critically needed. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL DALY,

Naas,

Co Kildare.