It seems incredible that no one knows how many data centres there are in Ireland. It could be as many as 100, it could be more. Whatever the number there are several others in the planning stages.
What we do know is that energy consumed by these vast buildings accounted for almost a quarter of the electricity consumed in Ireland last year, up from 5 per cent in 2015.
And, during the long hot summer when domestic water restrictions were imposed, it appeared to be water usage as usual for data centres.
Questions about how they operate are growing. Do they pay less than households for electricity? With the national grid creaking from decades of underinvestment do they even pay enough to cover their costs?
And why is the Government so keen to have them?
Irish Times climate and science correspondent Caroline O’Doherty explains the many questions around data centres while political correspondent Jack Horgan Jones looks at how Government defends the explosion of these vast resource-sapping structures against mounting criticism.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced Aideen Finnegan and Declan Conlon.
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