Data Centres contribute significantly to Ireland's GDP. The Irish data centre market amounted to over 3 Billion Euros of investment in 2023 with key opportunities to capitalize on future growth being driven by the AI revolution. However, its a competitive industry and while Ireland may have once been the EU pioneer of data centres, planning hurdles and electricity supply issues are forcing global technology companies to reconsider Ireland's role as a data centre hub.
In this episode, we report from the Data Centres Ireland Conference which took place at the RDS in Dublin in mid November. This was the 14th year of the event and it featured over 70 leaders and experts as well as 120 exhibitors showcasing the latest in data centre technology products, services and information.
The Data Centres Ireland Conference is the seminal meeting point for the industry each year and this year's topics included - the challenges facing the future of the data centre industry in Ireland, the role of renewables and energy storage, infrastructure technology trends and the impact of new EU sustainability regulations.
I am grateful to the following industry leaders and experts who graciously shared their insights with us.
- Garry Connolly, Founder, Host in Ireland
- Bobby Smith, Head of Energy Storage Ireland
- Dermot Costelloe, Associate Director, Fingleton White
- Mark Moloney, Sustainability Director, CyrusOne
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| Panel Discussion on The Evolving PR Image of Data Centres at the Data Centres Ireland Conference, RDS, Dublin, November 20 - 21, 2024. Inset picture, exhibition floor. |
DIVE DEEPER:
Additional information on the topics discussed in this episode:
- Ireland struggles to consolidate role as data centre hub - Jude Webber and Malcolm Moore, Financial Times (October 7th, 2024)
- Data Centres in Ireland - Tammana Joon, Public Policy.ie (October 1st, 2024)
- Ireland should not be blocking data centres, we need more of them - David McWilliams, The Irish Times (August 31st, 2024)
- Facilitating Data Centre Demand in Ireland - Tom Davy, Eoin Cassidy, Micheal Grace, Mason Hayes & Curran (June 19th, 2024)
- Power grab: the hidden costs of Ireland's datacentre boom - Jessica Traynor, The Guardian (February 15th, 2024)
- Q&A: How sustainable is Ireland as a data centre hub? - Ellen O'Regan, The Irish Times (September 21st, 2023)
