Most of us enjoy the benefits of cloud technology – whether you're an iPhone user backing up your photos or an enterprise running complex software online.

All of this comes at a cost. The cloud, for all its benefits, is hungry for power. And while some efforts are being made to make data centres more sustainable, the truth is that most are far from it.

According to Dr Paul Deane, a research fellow at UCC, a typical data centre could consume as much electricity as Kilkenny City. Now multiply that by 100.

In October 2022, Ireland had 70 data centres in operation, eight under construction and 30 in the planning stage. This includes large facilities owned by tech giants like Amazon, Facebook and Google.

What's more, these data centres' electricity consumption is going up and up. In Ireland, there was a jump of around a third between 2020 and 2021. Stats show that data centres consume more electricity than all of Ireland's rural homes – 14% as opposed to 12%. EirGrid, which runs Ireland's electricity grid, warns that this could reach 30% by 2030.

This rising electricity consumption poses problems for Ireland's government. Ireland is a major leader in data centre location – but it's struggling to keep facilities on its soil in line with its climate targets.

There are several reasons why Ireland has so many data facilities. There are corporation tax incentives. Its naturally cool and stable climate makes it ideal for data centres (no chance of overheating or of a data centre being put out of action in an earthquake). It's relatively close to the US, receives a lot of EU development money and has a skilled IT workforce.

Data centres are, it's argued, good for the economy – creating jobs in construction as well as IT.

Nevertheless, these power-hungry data centres have put a strain on the Greater Dublin power grid. To tackle this, EirGrid laid down an ultimatum – no new data centres to be built until 2028.

This isn't just because of strain on the power grid. Ireland has agreed to be 70% renewable by 2030. Any more data centres – or expansions to existing ones – would make this a pipe dream.

Because of this, politicians are caught between the needs of the economy, energy and the internet. 

How is the Irish government addressing this?

In October 2022, Climate Minister Eamon Ryan told Ireland's natural gas network that it couldn't supply any new connections to gas-only data centres. This constituted a doubling down on 2020's moratorium on data centres powered by fossil fuels.

This is because, the government says, gas-only data centres would "run counter to emissions reduction objectives and would not serve the wider efficiency and decarbonisation of our energy system".

Any growth in gas-only data centres "could result in security of supply risk being transferred from electricity to gas supply, which would be a significant challenge given Ireland's reliance on gas importation".

However, this government instruction has hit a roadblock and may necessitate a change to legislation.

What's the roadblock?

Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) has argued that it's within its legal rights to supply connections to third-party data centres. It's acting, it says, in line with CRU directives and the Gas Act. Nevertheless, it's temporarily halted new connections.

GNI also says that it's fearful of legal reprisals if it stops connections. One way around this would be a change in legislation. 

Despite the EirGrid moratorium, The Times reported that 11 data centres in Dublin have since been hooked up to the GNI pipeline.

What solutions are being proposed?

At present, it seems the onus is on data centres. Sustainability is now a precondition for applications, so they need to prove that they fit within the country's climate targets if they're going to get planning permission.

Data centres can become more sustainable in several ways. One is simply to go off-grid and rely on renewable power. Another is to make cooling more efficient – cooling facilities are one of the most power-hungry parts of any data centre.

Excess energy could be stored more effectively and waste heat could be used elsewhere – as in Odense, Denmark, where it's used to warm people's homes.

Ireland's data centres could be relocated so they're closer to wind farms – although this would almost certainly be resisted by their owners and could also lead to greater network latency.

Ireland or its data centres could take a leaf out of Pure Storage's book. This data management business is currently "putting a data centre on a digital diet".

The data centre in Brunello, Northern Italy, is being given an environmentally-friendly spring clean. Its data is being streamlined, with redundant data being thrown onto the scrap heap.

It uses software that spots any duplicate data – and promptly deletes it. By making this a daily activity, significant amounts of data are being trimmed.

Pure claims that it can reduce a data centre's power usage by 80%. If true – and if the solution is scalable – this could play a part in making data centres more energy efficient.

The problem, of course, is that big tech doesn't want its data storage to be limited. Data, we know, increases exponentially – so without regulation it will keep ballooning.

As Pure executive James Petter says:  "The macro trend is for data to increase. I do think innovation will continue, there will be new ways of storing the data." 

More hopefully, he notes that most data centres who approach Pure are asking about carbon emissions and renewables where once they asked about services and costs.

There's no easy way to square the demands of internet users, cloud providers and international climate targets. But in Ireland, at least, data centres will have to make cuts to their power consumption if they want to get planning permission.

Ascend Cloud Solutions is an Ireland-based provider of managed cloud migrations and VMware consulting services. Follow our blog for the latest industry news and cloud computing advice.