Data Centres

5. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the steps he is taking to address the fact that data centre demand is outpacing growth in renewable energy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [78104/26]

I will quickly address the previous question because I am interested in that area. No one has mentioned the rules around planning and how solar panels can be put on the side of apartment blocks. That is probably going to be a block. Anyway, that is a different question. Will the Minister outline the steps he is taking to address the fact that data centre demand is outpacing growth in renewable energy?

I thank the Deputy for his question. Data centres are central to Ireland's economic and digital future. Beyond their direct economic contribution, they underpin the wider digital economy and support investments in renewable energy through mechanisms including long-term power purchase agreements. The Government is prioritising the development of more renewable energy, including reforming the planning system to make it easier to build clean energy projects. Sustainable progress has been made and Ireland already regularly generates 40% to 50% of its electricity from renewable sources. Renewable generation capacity connected to the electricity system now exceeds 8.9 GW, an increase of more than 5 GW over the past decade. Against the backdrop of rising electricity demand, including from data centres, the Government has introduced mechanisms to better align our electricity demand with renewable generation and, critically, the necessary supporting infrastructure. For example, the large energy user action plan provides a robust set of actions to develop a strategic plan-led approach to facilitate future investment in energy-intensive sectors, while aligning future demand with renewable energy deployment and grid infrastructure and ensuring that the cost of developing necessary additional infrastructure is borne in a manner that is fair and balanced. In parallel, the CRU's large energy user connection policy established stringent criteria to ensure new data centres seeking connections in the electricity system address security of electricity, supply risks, system constraints and promote renewable energy targets. This includes requiring that at least 80% of annual electricity demand be met with additional renewable energy generated in Ireland. The plan-led approach is intended to align growth with Ireland's green transition, security of supply and affordability objectives, while also supporting wider Government priorities.

I would challenge anyone to do a quick Google search about the dangers to our energy supply arising from data centres. I have a couple of statistics. Electricity demand in Ireland is growing at roughly 23% annually and data centres currently consume 21% or 22% of the State's total electricity, indicating it could rise to more than 30% by 2030. Data centres absorb virtually all new added wind and renewable energy capacity. Instead of the greening of the world economy, new green, clean energy feeds the digital infrastructure, leaving the rest of the country still heavily reliant on fossil fuel. Data centres prolong fossil fuel dependency by bypassing the fuel grids, drive up wholesale prices and bills, and put strain on grid reliability. The issue of data centres and the energy that they consume goes on and on. It is worrying that the moratorium on new data centres was lifted by the Government in January. There are real fears in communities about how they will impact on our energy supply.

We speak about answering unrestricted growth. That is why the Government has moved to introduce a plan-led approach instead of allowing unmanaged development. If one looks at what has been introduced through the large energy user action plan, through aligned future demand growth with renewable energy development, transmission infrastructure and security of supply, the reality is that we are looking at significant progress in renewable energy generation. As I said earlier, we have over 8.9 GW now in process. Between 40% and 50% of our electricity is regularly coming from renewable sources. While demand is increasing, supply from indigenous renewable energy is also increasing rapidly. Government policy is focused on accelerating that progress even further and continuing our twin objectives around decarbonisation and digitalisation.

People are going to be extremely worried. Ireland leads the EU, with 31 MW of data centre capacity per 100,000 people. It is more than triple the nearest competitor, the Netherlands, and ten times the European average. The Minister of State just stated that we are going to push forward and will have more of these data centres. I find that worrying and people are going to be really worried. If one looks at the amount of clean energy, data centres are going to rely more on gas. Where does that leave our energy strategy? Where does it leave our ability to cope with the amount of energy that data centres suck up? Yesterday, I was in the audiovisual room to hear what is being held in those data centres and the infrastructure that the Israeli apartheid regime is using in Dublin. Data centres are hosting infrastructure for an apartheid regime. These data centres are not at all what we are talking about for the future.

With respect, the Deputy has not mentioned one benefit of what data centres provide, in underpinning our enterprise sector around ICT and digitalisation. It is a tactic that Sinn Féin uses. More than 180,000 jobs are underpinned as part of this sector.

Are they in data centres?

In ICT.

Digital services provide an enormous service to our citizens and to businesses and public services which rely on them every single day. The issue is how the Government manages that pathway forward. As I said, we have the large energy user action plan and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, connection policy. Future development will be linked with renewable energy projects. There will be proper planning policy and infrastructure delivery. The answer is not about rising demand. It is about bringing more renewable energy projects and grid infrastructure on stream. That is what we are focused on in the here and now.