U.S. Giant Latest Developer To Get Green Light For Data Centre Campus
Hyperscale data centre campus developer and operator Vantage Data Centers is set to debut in Ireland with a multiphase data centre campus called DUB1. The U.S.-based company said it will invest more than €1B to construct and deliver the new project.
It becomes the latest data centre developer to announce plans in Ireland amid growing concerns about energy infrastructure for power-hungry data centres. Amazon, Google and Microsoft recently warned that the state could lose significant investment because of a failure to address constraints on the Irish electricity grid.
The first two phases will consist of 52 megawatts of capacity, with the first phase expected to be operational later this year. Upon completion, DUB1 will be Vantage’s 14th campus across seven countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The campus will be located approximately 15 kilometres from Dublin city centre at Profile Park, Grange Castle, on 22 acres. The 405K SF campus will consist of a 32 MW facility and a 20 MW facility, with available land and power for a third facility.
Addressing power needs, Vantage said in a release that the DUB1 campus will include an on-site 100-megavolt-ampere generation plant capable of running a variety of fuels, primarily hydrotreated vegetable oil and gas fed by Gas Networks Ireland.
The generation plant is also capable of transferring power back to the grid, while Vantage said it plans to deploy HVO instead of diesel fuel for its backup generators and is working to obtain corporate power purchase agreements for green energy from local providers.
In 2023, consulting company Bitpower estimated that there were 82 data centres in Ireland, while the Central Statistics Office reported that centres accounted for 18% of the country’s power consumption in 2022, equal to every urban household in Ireland.
“With Dublin being one of the biggest data centre markets in the world, this expansion further solidifies Vantage’s role at the forefront of the digital infrastructure revolution,” Vantage Data Centers EMEA President David Howson said in a statement.
Earlier this month, An Bord Pleanála gave the green light for a new 200 MW, €1.2B data centre campus on the outskirts of Ennis in County Clare. The Ennis data centre campus will consist of six data halls covering 145 acres, or 1.3M SF, and applicant Art Data Centres said construction work will take six years and is due to commence this year.
Denver-based Vantage Data Centers develops and operates data centres across the U.S., EMEA and Asia Pacific and has 34 campuses worldwide totalling 20M SF.
