Host in Ireland Launches Spring 2021 Biannual Report

Host in Ireland, in association with Bitpower and Cornwall Insight, has launched its newest biannual report highlighting the importance of sustainability in today’s digital transformation. Accelerated by the pandemic, more than 50% of Irish businesses see a long-term “digital first” strategy required for the well-being and survival of their businesses. Data centres play a key role, both technically and economically, to make this happen as the industry currently underpins €132 billion in ICT exports in Ireland.

Also critical to this transformation is a sustainable energy policy. In 2020, Ireland reached a key milestone in its target of 70% renewable electricity by 2030 with 43% of electricity generated from renewable sources. Of the greenhouse emissions targets, this was the only renewable target met and the only one not to incur penalties. The opportunity moving forward comes from power companies and their customers – including large scale power users like data centres – aligning to collaborate towards a common goal and objective.

Additional highlights from the report include:
• The energy related carbon emission metric shows data centre carbon emissions at 1.85% of Ireland’s total emissions in 2020. This number is expected to remain stable even as data centre megawatts are expected to double over the next five years.
• Construction Investment in data centre facilities in Ireland totalled €7 billion in the decade between 2010 and 2020. The coming five years will see a further €7 billion of investment, based on data centres with approved planning permission, with €1.33 billion of that to be spent in 2021.
• There are now 70 operational data centres in Ireland.

“Now it’s time for the data centre industry to be brave, creative and relentless to meet the sustainability challenge. As our dependence on data grows, so too does our need for data centres and the people who make the magic happen,” said Garry Connolly, founder of Host in Ireland. “The ‘this is how we’ve always done it’ mindset is not going to maintain and grow one of Ireland’s largest export industries. It is going to require a greater level of collective purpose between the energy producers and the emerging data-led industries to not only co-exist, but benefit from each other.”