Climate concerns over approved Foyle Port data centres raised

Derry City and Strabane District Council has been urged to consider adopting a number of proposals regarding data centres.
It followed a presentation on ‘Data Centres and Climate Concerns’ made to Council’s Environment and Regeneration committee.

Data centres contain computers - servers - which support the software, apps and websites used every day. They can range in size from small cabinets to stadium-size hyperscale warehouses.

Wednesday afternoon’s presentation was given by Méabh O’Neill from the Environmental Gathering group and John Gormley from the Save the Moat campaign.

It came in response to the granting of planning approval by Council for the first stage of the Atlantic Hub development at Foyle Port, in October 2024 - a data centre, with outline permission already approved for an additional three data centres.

According to Ms O’Neill, each of these data centres will require an estimated 100 megawatt supply of electricity 24/7.

“We are here to raise serious concerns regarding how the decision was scrutinised and give an overview of why we are concerned, from a climate and environmental point of view,” said Ms O’Neill.

“Right now data centres are experiencing a massive growth because of AI [Artificial Intelligence], particularly the generative AI, which has really taken off in the last few years.

“A lot of people are having a lot of fun with AI but there is a lot of harm also being done with generative AI. [A type of AI technology that can produce various types of content, including text, imagery, audio and synthetic data.] Nobody is really thinking about the energy consequences that come from it.

“In terms of data centre growth globally, the World Economic Forum has said the computer power dedicated to AI is doubling every 100 days. There are five big tech companies who own most of them: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple.

“[According to] international energy agencies say data centres already account for 1 to 1.5% of global energy consumption, which is massive; they also account for 2% of global emissions - on a par with aeroplane travel - and the same scrutiny is not being applied to data centres as is being applied to aeroplane travel.”

The Republic of Ireland has 82 data centres; there are 14 under construction and 40 more have received planning permission.
Ms O’Neill criticised Stormont for not providing “any policy direction on data centres”.

“There is no oversight from Department for Infrastructure. There is no direction from Stormont. Councils are, therefore, having to make these decisions with no oversight or any impact looking at the cumulative effect of data centres,” she added.

“Focusing on energy and water, data centres will impact on our net zero targets. They also have community and social impacts. Some of them have to generate their own electricity through gas, which causes air quality consequences. They also put a strain on renewable resources.

“In terms of water consumption, data centres are also gluttons for fresh water and require billions of litres to cool the servers, from a fire safety point of view and also to ensure they operate properly.

“When we think about Campsie, we’ve got the River Foyle and the River Faughan. The River Faughan supplies our drinking water. The River Foyle has special protections; it is also a trans-boundary river. We need to take this all into consideration when we are making decisions around data centres.”

John Gormley said the Foyle Port Atlantic Hub data centres represent a “phenomenal increase, potentially 48%, increase in total consumption of electricity in Northern Ireland overall”.

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“That is an astounding figure and we are wondering why that was not considered in the application.

“Derry and Strabane use 194.88 gigawatt hours per year. All of Northern Ireland uses 2460 gigawatt hours per year. If the four data centres are developed, they will use 3504 gigawatt hours per year - the equivalent of 1,095,000 households in Northern Ireland.

“Essentially those four data centres would use 142% of the current usage of all the households in Northern Ireland.

“The question is how much emissions will they generate and the second question is, what will happen if there’s high pressure on the system? Will the electricity go off in people’s houses? Who will have priority? Will it be the data centres? Will it be businesses? Will it be people in their houses when the lights go out?” said John Gormley.

Following their presentation, Méabh O’Neill and John Gormley asked Council to consider adopting four proposals in relation to data centres.

Cllr Shaun Harkin said he would be proposing their adoption at February’s full Council meeting on February 26.

The proposals were: “Derry City and Strabane District Council writes to the Department for Infrastructure to ask it to exercise its oversight role and provide clear policy direction to local authorities on data centre planning decisions in line with commitments in the Climate Act (2022).

“Council will gain clarity on the annual, and daily energy usage by the approved data centre and present this to this committee with comparisons on household energy usage in our Council area and across the North, and the impact on energy security.

“Council will bring a report to the Environment and Regeneration committee to outline its obligations under the Climate Act (2022) for data centres and other big emitters of greenhouse gases.

“Council will review if our local development plan considers energy consumption and energy security as material considerations in planning decisions.”

Before Ms O’Neill and Mr Gormley began their presentation, Cllr John Boyle (SDLP) and Alderman Julie Middleton (DUP) recused themselves as they are Port and Harbour Commissioners.