Ireland’s data-centre debate is measured in megawatts and years.
In The Irish Times (20 October 2026), Ronan Kelly, chief executive of Digital Infrastructure Ireland (DII), says new data centres now wait five years for a grid connection. Under the new rules they must have on-site backup generation that can supply the national grid when needed, and draw 80% of their energy from renewables within six years of starting operations.
5 years
Wait for a grid connection
80% / 6 yrs
Renewable share required after start of operations
109
Data centres operating in Ireland
Source: The Irish Times, 20 October 2026, quoting Digital Infrastructure Ireland.
What the Industry Is Asking For
DII proposes two changes:
- let new sites start on their own power, on condition that they connect to the grid as soon as it is possible;
- count renewable power bought over private lines from wind or solar farms toward the 80% target. Today only green electricity supplied through the grid counts.
Kelly also notes that many of the 109 data centres already operating are more than five years old, and that their systems generally need renewing at about ten years. If barriers to investment remain, he warns, that renewal could be done abroad instead.
The Quiet Line
That last point is the quiet one. A grid connection lasts decades; the hardware behind it does not.
When power is the scarcest input, the honest measure of a hall is useful work per connected megawatt.
That depends on how well its fleet is kept healthy, diagnosed and refreshed, not only on how much capacity it was granted. A megawatt feeding idle, throttled or failing servers is a megawatt the country has allocated and nobody is using well.
If connections stay rationed, should the next allocation reward how well existing fleets use their power, not just requests for more?