Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 November 2020
100. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications the status of plans to develop efficiency standards of data centres as outlined in the programme for Government under the heading "Regulation Driving Climate Action"; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35068/20]
View answerI was encouraged to see a reference to data centres under the climate action section of the programme for Government. My concern in regard to data centres is that they are a blind spot, not only for the Government, but for governments and states throughout western Europe and North America. I would like to hear the Minister's thoughts on the Government's plan for dealing with the carbon emissions from these massive buildings.
The Government statement on the role of data centres in Ireland's enterprise strategy acknowledges the role of data centres as part of the digital and communications infrastructure for many sectors of our economy. The statement also noted that data centres pose considerable challenges to the future planning and operation of Ireland’s power system. Such challenges arise in terms of renewable energy policy, generation adequacy, security of electricity supply and electricity customer costs.
The programme for Government commits to developing efficiency standards for equipment and processes, particularly those set to grow rapidly, such as data centres. The ICT sector needs to undergo its own green transformation. Earlier this year, the European Commission adopted Shaping Europe's Digital Future, which includes an objective to foster an open, democratic and sustainable society. Key actions include initiatives to achieve climate-neutral, highly energy efficient and sustainable data centres by no later than 2030. I note that the EU ecodesign regulation on servers and data storage products sets minimum standards around the environmental impact of these products and requires that circular economy principles will be mandatory for suppliers of this type of equipment from next year.
The climate action plan also provides that the IDA will use its new strategy for 2020 to 2024 to fully integrate decarbonisation objectives across its portfolio of clients. This strategy will seek to ensure new large-scale enterprise investments in Ireland, including factors such as location and power purchase agreement opportunities, are aligned with the build-out of the grid to maximise renewable sources. We have seen recently a number of unsubsidised corporate power purchase agreements, purchased by data centre operators, in the Irish market and I hope we can encourage more. When data centre operators purchase electricity directly from renewable generators, it contributes towards the State objective to decarbonise our electricity system without any subsidy from electricity customers.
In addition, the Government’s climate action fund is supporting South Dublin County Council to develop an innovative district heating project in the Tallaght area, using waste heat from a local data centre. The Tallaght district heating scheme will provide low carbon heat to public sector, residential and commercial customers, with the objective of decreasing the level of emissions associated with the use of fossil fuels for heating. This project will provide valuable information in regard to the synergies between district heating and waste heat recovery from a data centre. This will inform future policy for the use of waste heat in appropriate locations and where technically feasible.
My Department is working with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the relevant energy bodies to implement the commitments in the climate action plan and the programme for Government.
The Tallaght district heating scheme is very welcome and is something we support. However, it does not allay any concerns I have in regard to data centres. According to EirGrid, by 2028, data centres, along with other large users, will consume 29% of Ireland's electricity. We are already Europe’s data centre capital, with Amazon, Google and Microsoft having operations here. Dozens of centres have opened in recent years, bringing the total to 54. We have ten centres under construction, including a €1 billion Amazon hub in Mulhuddart, west Dublin, and another 31 centres have planning permission.
These centres do not get the same attention as the agriculture industry, the aviation industry or the fossil fuel industry but they should and, in fact, they should get more attention. They are jobs poor and carbon heavy. People drive past them in industrial estates on the outskirts of towns and because they do not have two smoking chimney stacks going into the sky, they do not attract the same amount of attention. This is a flawed model.
I am not encouraged that there is enough detail in the Minister's response to suggest that we are truly going to tackle what is being done.
Every industry will have to operate within the planning framework where we go to net zero emissions by 2050 and 50% reduction in the next ten years. A key to that will be energy efficiency. We focus all the time on the generation side but efficiency is vital. Looking at the use of electricity across a range of different sectors, we have seen significant growth of our economy without a commensurate growth in electricity. We can do this.
The development of data centres, and EirGrid is the key company which manages and oversees this, can only work in tandem with the development of our grid and our renewable electricity system. We will not allow one industry to tip us over the edge in terms of our emissions profile. It has to contribute but if, as the Deputy said, we get 75% or 80% of our electricity from renewables by 2028, which is feasible, then we can make that equation work. In the subsequent decade, when we are looking to develop some 30 GW of offshore wind, particularly in the west coast, the south-west coast and so on, there is the possibility for us to run a digital, modern economy, electrifying transport and industry, and including data centres. The scale of the power we will have available to us will be a multiple of any use. It will be low carbon and relatively low cost compare to other locations. We can only make this work in a way that is carbon neutral.
My other concern is that these data centres are light on creating jobs. For a building of such size, there may only be a couple of dozen workers there. We are dedicating large spaces to companies like Amazon, which has appalling workers' rights records throughout the globe, to create these massive data centres.
I know these corporate purchasing power agreements are unsubsidised but I am concerned about them because it is the beginning of corporate creep into our energy generation at a time when our energy security is not certain. The Minister is strong on this and there is much in the programme for Government on energy security but we are not there yet and these data centres will be hiving off and keeping for themselves much clean renewable energy generation to go into centres which, although storing data, are not creating jobs. Is it cumulatively a total good? I am not convinced it is.
We are starting an energy security review. It is looking at the wider context in terms of gas networks and so on but when one starts looking at it, one realises that to have a full review one has to see the full picture and that includes demand, which includes these operations and others. It is an important part of our economy. As the Deputy said, the data centres themselves are relatively small in terms of jobs but many of the companies operating them here have tens of thousands of workers in my constituency and in the Deputy's. There is a connection in having the data centres, which are in many ways the core of the business, and being able to attract other elements of the business. That is hard to prove. I go back to the basic level of asking someone if they have a phone and if they use it. If so, that is the data centre. The phone is just an extension of the data centre. We are not going to remove our use of our phones any day soon. We need to work with and set the highest standards with the companies and say we will only do this if it works in a low-carbon the way, including the use of district heating, having the most energy-efficient centres going and using our comparative competitive advantage in renewable power. That model can be sustainable.
