Big tech has built so many data centres in Ireland that the sector now uses a fifth of the country’s electricity. That is more than all of Ireland’s urban homes put together.
According to the Wall Street Journal for much of the past three years, Ireland blocked new data centres so its creaking electricity grid could cope. Now the country is trying B.Y.O.P, or Bring Your Own Power. New data centres and expansions can go ahead, but only with on-site power plants or contracts for new, largely renewable energy nearby.
Irish minister for enterprise, tourism and employment Peter Burke said: “Under our policy, energy has to be brought to the table by the large energy user,”
The policy is being watched as a test case for governments trying to attract AI cash without dumping blackout risks or higher bills on residents.
The public mood around data centres is souring. Pew Research Centre found more Americans now think the energy-hungry sheds have more downsides than benefits. A March Gallup survey found 71 per cent opposed having one built in their own area.
Data Centre Watch said local opposition in the US blocked six new data centre projects between 2023 and 2024. That rose to 30 in 2025, with more than 20 blocked in the first three months of this year.
Countries, including India and Mexico, are increasingly worried about the strain on water supplies as well as electricity. Maine recently passed a moratorium on data centres bigger than 20MW until November 2027. In Virginia, known as data centre alley, power supply dominates the argument.
The White House has looked at a similar model to Ireland’s, where tech companies would pay for power plants added to the grid on their behalf.
Governments still do not want to miss the money. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Google are expected to spend $670 billion on AI infrastructure this year. That includes data centres and the power needed to feed the AI beast.
Ireland shows both the promise and the mess. Data centres take 21 per cent of the country’s power generation. In Dublin and neighbouring Meath, the figure rises to more than half. Developers arrived in the late 2000s, pulled in by low taxes, EU access and an English-speaking workforce.
The grid could not keep pace. Housing estates in north Dublin have gone dark during storms, as have cities along the coast. Electricity prices are among the highest in Europe.
University College Cork professor of sustainable energy Hannah Daly said: “Because the data centres are so concentrated in geographic areas, and that they have such a large size relative to demand elsewhere, even when they’re spread around the country the grid infrastructure is insufficient to meet their demands.”
State-owned grid operator EirGrid spent €100 million building a new substation for about 200,000 planned homes nearby.
Sinn Féin member Lynn Boylan said the substation’s supply was “exhausted” by nearby data centres, meaning another one is needed if the homes are to be built.
EirGrid said it constantly balances supply and demand and is working to support the government’s new energy action plan, including connections for new data centres.
Ireland is wary of upsetting big tech, which fills the till. US tech companies accounted for about 22 per cent of Irish tax revenues in 2024, according to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. With some of Europe’s lowest corporate tax rates, Microsoft, Pfizer and Meta have built major operations in the country.
