Governments around the world are planning to block the development of data centres, over fears that their huge energy usage is putting excessive pressure on national climate targets and electricity grids.
Ireland, Germany, Singapore and China, as well as a US county and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, have introduced restrictions on new data centres.
Data centres currently account for a fifth of Ireland’s energy consumption.
In London, a data centre task force has been set up to co-ordinate energy and planning responses across the capital, following signs in 2022 that the growth in data centres near fibre optic cable installations was putting pressure on the availability of electricity for homes.
