Statistics raise concerns that rise in demand for data processing driven by AI could derail climate targets
Datacentres supporting tech hubs used 21% of Ireland’s electricity last year, an increase 20% on 2022 – all homes used 18%.Datacentres supporting tech hubs used 21% of Ireland’s electricity last year, an increase 20% on 2022 – all homes used 18%.Ireland’s energy-hungry datacentres consumed more electricity last year than all of its urban homes combined, according to official figures.
The rise in demand for data processing, driven by recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, could lead Ireland’s datacentres to consume about 31% of Ireland’s electricity within the next three years, according to the country’s This would eclipse the electricity demand of Ireland’s urban and rural homes, which together made up 28% of overall power demand in 2023, according to the figures. It would also pile pressure on tech companies to invest more in developing their own renewable energy supplies.
Professor Paul Deane, a senior research fellow at University College Cork, told the Irish Examiner: “If we already had lots of wind and lots of solar, it wouldn’t be a problem. “We’re still so reliant on fossil fuels. We need to be able to build up renewables very quickly. We’re good at building large datacentres quickly but not as good at building renewables.”Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningIreland relied on fossil fuels for more than 50% of its electricity last year, of which 45% was generated by gas plants and the remainder from burning coal, peat or oil. Wind power made up 34.
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