Green Data: a vision for sustainable data centres in Ireland

Baringa and Bitpower Energy Solutions, a specialist data centre consultancy, have published a report that examines the role of data centres in modern Irish society, the social and economic value that the data centre industry brings to Ireland, and the essential role that data centres play in helping Ireland to meet its climate goals.

The report, which was commissioned by Cloud Infrastructure Ireland, also sets out a vision for the future of the industry, and the actions that must be taken by the sector, Government, and other stakeholders to ensure a sustainable future for the industry in Ireland.

Key findings - what have we learned?

• Data centres are essential for modern society, powering the cloud and the digital revolution that is transforming all sectors of the economy.
• Data centres can help accelerate the energy transition in Ireland by:

1. directly supporting new renewables projects;
2. financing improvements in energy security and networks;
3. offering grid support services to facilitate renewables integration;
4. supporting innovative solutions to achieving a zero-carbon power system in Ireland;
5. and providing zero-carbon heat to neighbouring buildings.

• Data centres are critical enablers of decarbonisation:

1. Typically, they use 80% less energy per computing load than traditional on-premises servers, reducing emissions from computing.
2. They reduce the need for travel and physical goods, lowering emissions from transport and manufacturing.

• Data centres attract over €1bn of direct investment into Ireland annually, and are a key part of Ireland’s computer services industry, which generated €134bn of exports in 2020, representing 33% of all Irish exports. The computing industry in Ireland supported more than 90,000 jobs in 2020, with these jobs growing at more than twice the rate of overall jobs growth and being amongst the best-paying jobs in Ireland.

For more information, please contact Mark Turner.