Paul Murphy challenges data centre expansion tied to fossil gas

Minister, the new CRU large user policy enables further exponential expansion of data centres. It allows them to generate their own electricity using fossil fuels. The CRU is now also allowing data centres to connect directly to the gas network in South Dublin County Council for example. How can you possibly say any of this is in line with our legal obligations to reduce both final energy consumption and carbon emissions? Thanks very much Deputy and I appreciate your interest in this matter. It does not align with mine but it is a well held view by you and you have certainly heard it on more than one occasion. Ireland has attracted in my view the best data centre and tech companies in the world. This is a really important relationship and the Government continues to work with the sector towards a secure and decarbonised energy future. Data centres are central to Ireland's economic and digital future however data centres like all large energy users have to exist within the boundaries of our climate legislation and targets. Climate Action Plan 2025 includes measures to increase the proportion of renewable electricity to up to 80 per cent by 2030. Data centres can be at the heart of our renewable future using renewable electricity to power data, create jobs and to generate tax revenue for the State. In that regard I note that COU's LEU connection policy will support the Government's renewable energy targets as data centres above a certain threshold will be required to meet at least 80 per cent of their annual demand with new additional renewable electricity generated in the Republic of Ireland. The Energy Efficiency Directive contains many new measures aimed at further enhancing energy efficiency across society and this includes the requirements under Article 12 to enhance the energy efficiency of data centres across all EU member states. Ongoing mandatory data centre energy and sustainability performance reporting across the EU under the EED will enhance data centres' sustainability and drive energy efficiency by requiring data collection to report on their energy performance. The EU Commission is using this data to establish an EU-wide rating scheme and further legislation to address energy usage. Additionally, the Programme for Government commits to enhance data centres' use of renewable energy resources, energy efficient technologies and effective solutions such as waste heat capture to reduce their carbon footprint. Thank you Minister. Deputy Murphy. I'd like the Minister to expand on how it's possible to have this policy of exponential growth of data centres connecting directly to fossil fuels. How that coincides with what you say is that it has to exist within the bounds of our climate targets. I mean we're signed up to the EED as a legally binding target to reduce energy consumption by 11.7% by 2030. Ireland's target reduction is 16% and yet we have a decision paper from the CRU which is talking about medium-term electricity demand from data centres could reach 5.8 gigawatts. That's equal to the peak energy demand of the entire country, right? All the households in the country equal to the data centres. It's also more than the entire 5 gigawatt target for offshore wind energy by 2030 which the Government is sure to meet. It says itself that Ireland's total electricity demand has grown by 30% over the past 10 years, with data centres' demand having greatly contributed to this level of growth. This level of growth is projected to continue over the past, over the next 10 years, with data centres representing a larger share of total energy demand. How does that tally with a commitment and a legal obligation to reduce energy demand? When they're literally saying it's going to continue to go up, it's going to go up fast, and data centres is a driving factor of that. I think you have to look at it from a Government perspective where we have to ensure that the economy remains robust, that we have a strategy in place to ensure, based on the tech sector trends, that we're able to attract investment to continue to provide employment for what is a growing population. Sometimes others, I'm not suggesting you, bury their heads in the sand and say data centres are bad, you can't do that anymore. Government doesn't agree with that position. The direction of travel in relation to the tech sector, in relation to the way we live our lives, now means that so much more is done in a cloud-based environment. So you can't, on the one hand, have a view that we should have a strong economy and ignore the fundamental building blocks of what that future economy looks like and how it operates. So of course there's a requirement and we have to live within the EU directive, as I said, and I mentioned that in the reply that data centres, like all large energy users, have to exist within the boundaries of our climate legislation. That's my question. You're the Minister, or you're in the Department of the Environment. How? You can't just say it and then move on. It is completely illogical to say, on the one hand, we're committed to this legally binding target of reducing energy consumption, but on the other hand, agree with a decision paper which says our level of electricity usage is going to grow and grow and grow and that's going to be driven by the data centres. You have to pick one or the other. We're either going to reduce energy consumption or we're going to allow it to increase and the logic of increasing the energy consumption is going to be to significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions, because you now have data centres directly connecting to fossil fuel usage. Originally they used to say, oh no, don't worry, it'll all be renewables. I mean, in South Dublin County Council, the CRU has given decision to grant permission to Gas Networks Ireland to connect a gas pipeline to the massive Vantage data centre in Profile Park and the decision states that the emissions are going to be 3 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. This is an area where 32% of emissions in the local area are already from data centres and they're going to go up even further. You also have to accept, Deputy, that the long-term strategy of the Government is to generate much more electricity from renewables. We have a target of 20 gigawatts of offshore renewable energy by 2040. Now, you're right in the sense that, yes, gas is a transition as we move away from fossil fuels. Well, it is. You're making the point about gas being the base of your argument. But we've got to accept, as we work towards bringing more renewables onto the grid. We just can't stand still, bury our heads in the sand and watch data centres and the tech companies and the investment that's associated with it go elsewhere. And then our society is left behind, our economy is in trouble, and we're not able to, you know, invest in the kind of services, whether it's in hospitals or whatever, across society. So we have to have a balanced approach, whilst following our trajectory about eliminating fossil fuels. And we have a very clear plan in terms of bringing renewables onto the grid by 2040. We're now moving ahead with the plan-led approach. We recently had the Tonnuwa site for the auction for the offshore renewable energy there of 900 megawatts, and we intend to continue with that at pace. But gas has to be a transition as we work our way through that. Deputy Ward. Deputy Ward.