Data centre power statistics show Apple’s Athenry rejection changed little

A penny for Tim Cook’s thoughts, as well as those of the population of Athenry and the surrounding area.

Five years ago the Apple chief executive effectively pulled the plug on his firm’s plans for a data centre complex outside the Co. Galway town, after months of delays as the project meandered through the planning system while three objectors sought to block the development.

Those objections focused on the lack of employment from the centres, as well as the impact on the wider environment. At the time of Apple mothballing the plans, there was much hand-wringing about what it said about Ireland Inc. Could the country keep attracting tech investment if the biggest name of the lot couldn’t build its data centres because of local objections? And what would happen to Ireland’s plans for attracting data centres in the future?

It’s fair to say that these days, there is little concern about whether Ireland can bring in data centres. The real question is should we.

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Data published by the Central Statistics Office on Monday gives a startling insight into the growth of the sector in the past decade, as well as the wider impact on society.

In 2015, the year Apple’s plans for Athenry were first announced, data centres accounted for about 5 per cent of all electricity consumed in Ireland. By the time the proposal was shelved in 2018, that consumption rate increased to 8 per cent.

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Last year, that rate had more than doubled to 18 per cent of all electricity consumed in the Republic — about the same as all urban homes in the State.

The growth is staggering to be sure, and questions about whether the grid is able to handle these power hogs were thrown into sharp relief by a warning from EirGrid a few hours later of possible power cuts amid a shortage of wind and solar energy.

How different things would be if Apple had been allowed to build its data centres in Athenry is an open question, but stalling that development doesn’t seem to have hurt Ireland as a location for these warehouses full of servers. At a time when households are trying to cut energy use amid inflation and environmental concerns, there is little doubt that data centres’ power consumption is only going to keep going up.