Apple’s data farm will devour power2017
APPLE’S proposed new data centre in County Galway will use the same amount of electricity as 1.1 million fridge-freezers, if all eight data farms are completed.
The environmental impact survey found that it would need 30 megawatts of power in the first phase, when one data farm is open, then up to 240 megawatts if all eight of the planned farms are built.
An A+ efficiency fridgefreezer consumes around 200 watts of power, or 1.75megawatt hours, per year.
It would take 150,000 fridge-freezers running all year to use the same amount of energy of just the firstphase data centre.
All eight data halls together would match the annual energy use of more than 1.1 million fridge-freezers.
The initial power demands will be the same as just under 50,000 people’s electricity use every year, while the eight data halls would draw the same amount from the grid as almost 400,000 people.
If all eight go ahead, their power use will add up to 8pc of the entire country’s electricity demand in 2015.
Objectors to Apple’s plans used these figures on energy demand as a key point in their arguments.
But on Thursday, the Commercial Court ruled against Athenry residents Allan Daly and Sinéad Fitzpatrick, who objected to the plans, and gave the goahead for work to begin on the €850m project in Athenry.
A third objector, Brian McDonagh, had his concerns, dismissed by the court.
It emerged that Mr McDonagh is a director of Ecologic Data Centres, which plans to build a large data centre in Wicklow.
In in effort to address environmental concerns, Apple is looking to invest millions in renewable energy in order to provide the electricity.
It is expected that the data centre, if it goes ahead, will provide hundreds of jobs in the area and the court’s ruling was celebrated by many local residents.