Datacentres set to consume third of Ireland’s energy by 2026

One-third of Ireland’s energy will be used to power datacentres by 2026, claims a 170-page report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), as the number of server farms in the country is expected to grow by 65% over the coming years.

The report states there are currently 82 datacentres in operation in Ireland, with a further 14 already under construction and another 40 already approved to be built, which will lead to a consequential increase in demand from the sector for energy.

“Electricity demand from datacentres in Ireland was 5.3 TWh in 2022, representing 17% of the country’s total electricity consumed … at this pace, Ireland’s datacentres may double their electricity consumption by 2026, and with artificial intelligence [AI] penetrating the market at a fast rate, we forecast the sector to reach a share of 32% of the country’s total electricity demand in 2026,” it says.

And this is a situation, the report warns, that may pose challenges for the reliability and stability of the country’s electricity system.

It also goes on to predict the amount of electricity consumed by the datacentre sector could hit 1,000 TWh in 2026, which is equivalent to the total amount of power used by the whole of Japan, as the demand for compute capacity, AI and cryptocurrency workloads increase.

According to its forecast, electricity demand from datacentres, AI and the cryptocurrency sector is on course to double by 2026.

The report further states there are 8,000 datacentres around the world, with around a third (33%) of them based in the US. China accounts for around 10% of these facilities, while Europe is home to 16%.

This means there are approximately 1,240 datacentres in Europe and – as of 2022 – they consumed around 100 TWh of power, which equates to almost 4% of the European Union’s (EU’s) total electricity demand.

“With the majority concentrated in the financial centres of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin … [and there are] a significant number of additional datacentres planned, as well as new deployments that can be expected to be realised over the coming years, we forecast that electricity consumption in the datacentre sector in the European Union will reach almost 150 TWh by 2026,” the report says.

This projected surge in the amount of energy datacentres consume will need to be moderated, it adds, which means the sector may find itself on the receiving end of additional regulatory intervention and increased pressure to improve the efficiency of its facilities.

The latter could be achieved through the rolling out of more energy-efficient datacentre cooling mechanisms, for example, such as direct-to-chip water cooling systems and liquid cooling systems, too.

“Machine leaning can help reduce the electricity demand of servers by optimising their adaptability to different operating scenarios,” the report states. “Google reported using its DeepMind AI to reduce the electricity demand of their datacentre cooling systems by 40%.

“In the long-term, replacing supercomputers with quantum computers could reduce the electricity demand of the sector if the transition is supported by efficient cooling systems.”