Kildare County Council says planned data centre runs counter to national policy

Kildare County Council has said a planned €1 billion data centre campus runs counter to national policy as it will result in the emission of 28.6 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent during its lifetime.
In August multimillionaire engineering entrepreneur and co-owner of Monaghan-based forklift manufacturer Combilift, Robert Moffett’s Herbata Ltd lodged plans for the six data-centre campus for a site near Naas.
In response the council said the projected carbon-dioxide emissions from the campus on lands in ­the Jigginstown, Halverstown and Newhall areas of Naas represented 49.35 per cent of the commercial buildings emissions ceiling up to 2030. It said this level of emissions “is considered to be excessive for one development, and would have wider implications for the sector to remain within its emission ceiling, with a consequent negative impact on climate change”.
In a request for further information on the proposal the council told Herbata that the proposed development would run counter to the provisions of national policy and to the role of data centres as contained in Ireland’s Enterprise Strategy 2022, both of which require decarbonisation through emissions reduction/removal and design. The council said it would, therefore, be contrary to policies in the Kildare County Development Plan 2023-2029, and would set an undesirable precedent for similar developments of this nature.
Planning documents lodged with the application said that the project would “use highly efficient on-site gas turbines to generate the majority of electrical energy required to operate the data centre”.
The council also said that the planned centre powered mainly by on-site fossil fuel-generation ran counter to emissions reduction objectives “and would not serve the wider efficiency and decarbonisation of our energy system”. This “could result in the security of supply risk being transferred from electricity to gas supply, which would be a significant challenge given Ireland’s reliance on gas importation”.
Planning documentation lodged said that the applicant has had discussions with various solar and wind renewable energy suppliers with a view to supplying energy through corporate power purchase agreements. It added that the project “seeks to become Ireland’s first non-power grid dependent data centre campus utilising renewable, efficient technologies”.