Data centers could help boost offshore wind, report says – The Irish Times

Energy-intensive data centers could help the Republic meet its clean energy goals by supporting investment in offshore wind projects, a new report argues.

Government targets require developers to build offshore wind farms capable of generating 5,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to meet the Republic’s peak demand by 2030, up from the current 25 MW.

Experts commissioned by data center industry group Cloud Infrastructure Ireland (CII) say its members’ facilities will be key to the construction of many offshore wind farms as they will be able to buy the electricity generated.

CII says the construction of offshore power plants will be contingent on their developers obtaining corporate power purchase agreements – deals through which large energy users such as data centers enter into power purchase contracts. These deals will give developers certainty, allowing them to raise the necessary funding to finance projects in the first place, according to CII, which is part of the Ibec employers’ lobby.

Earlier this week, the independent Climate Change Performance Index called for a moratorium on data centers, which the organization predicts could account for 30 percent of energy use here by 2030.

The sites have been under scrutiny for several years as the republic’s power grids struggled to keep up with rapidly growing demand and high electricity prices focused attention on large electricity consumers. Opponents of this development, including environmental groups, want such projects to stall.

However, a CII report from British consultancy Baringa notes that big tech companies are already supporting renewable energy in other parts of the world through corporate power purchase deals.

Baringa also believes they could help reduce energy bills for businesses and households, as such deals would mean wind farms would not have to rely on government renewable energy support schemes funded by contributions from electricity customers.

Corporate power purchase agreements could “avoid up to €73 million in government-backed payments under the Offshore Renewable Energy Support Scheme”, the report claims.

Baringa also argues that as the Republic continues to build offshore wind farms, it could end up with a surplus of electricity, potentially forcing operators to periodically shut down some or all of their generation.

Using demand forecasts from network operator Eirgrid, consultants say renewable energy supply could exceed demand by 29 to 55 percent by 2040. The firm argues that instead of wasting some of that power, data centers could use it.

Dr Mark Turner, partner at Baringa, said the results show that “data centers are at the intersection of two of Ireland’s ambitions: digitalisation and offshore wind”.

“Our research shows that data centers can benefit the offshore wind industry by providing the revenue certainty needed to attract investment and deliver projects,” he said.

Michael McCarthy, director of CII, predicted that data centers would be the “ideal market” for the huge volumes of offshore wind power the Republic plans to generate in the future.

Donal Travers, head of technology, consumer and business services at Ireland’s government development agency IDA, said the consultants’ findings showed offshore wind and data centers were “highly complementary.”

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