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Dublin, Ireland — Data centers based in Ireland, a European hub for the energy-guzzling facilities, now consume over a fifth of the EU member’s electricity, overtaking that used by all urban Irish homes combined, official statistics showed Tuesday.
According to Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO), data centers consumed 21 percent of all metered electricity consumption in 2023, up from five percent in 2015 and 18 percent in 2022.
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For the first time that exceeded electricity consumption in urban homes: 18 percent in 2023, down from 19 percent the previous year.
Rural households accounted for 10 per cent.
The results come with increasingly heated debate in Ireland around the energy needs of data centers which house computer storage facilities.
Concerns are rising around the pressure the centers put on the electricity grid, especially as demand accelerates due to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.
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Earlier this year Ireland’s grid operator Eirgrid predicted the emergence of looming “electricity supply challenges” for Ireland this decade, in part due to “growth of demand driven by large energy users and data centers”.
By 2028 data centers are projected to consume nearly 30 percent of Ireland’s electricity, according to an International Energy Agency report published in January.
Tech giants such as Google, Meta, Amazon and TikTok already operate some of the more than 80 data centers in Ireland, with several expansions or new facilities in the pipeline.
Ireland’s boom in data centers and tech companies has been powered by its policy of low corporate taxation.