Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to construct three new data centres in north Dublin that “will have no significant impact on climate”.
That is according to planning consultant John Spain Associates, on behalf of AWS firm, Universal Developers LLC, which has secured planning permission from Fingal County Council for three data centres on a 65 acre landholding at Cruiserath Road, Dublin 15.
The plans have been stalled, however, following five third-party appeals lodged with An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP). ACP has also asked the Amazon firm to clarify the scheme’s impact on climate.
Mr Spain said that “the proposed development involves significant and effective measures to mitigate climate impact and the result is a development which will have no significant impact on climate”.
He said that the scheme would “also support the delivery of additional renewable energy in line with Government policy”.
Mr Spain also enclosed a connection agreement between the AWS company and EirGrid which he says would provide sufficient power to serve the proposed development in its entirety.
The enclosed connection documentation running to 189 pages is mainly redacted for commercial sensitivity reasons. The agreement was reached in 2017 and modified in February of this year.
Mr Spain told ACP that the connection agreement with EirGrid and the AWS firm covered already permitted and potential future phases at Cruiserath Road.
Universal Developers LLC first lodged plans for the data centres more than two and a half years ago in December 2022. The five third parties who lodged appeals against the grant of planning permission issued by Fingal County Council are Friends of the Earth, the Fingal One Future Group, Dr Colin Doyle, John Conway and Louth Environmental Group and Mannix Coyne.
On the impact on greenhouse gas emissions, Mr Spain said that the proposed development would not contribute to any exceedance of the sectoral emission ceiling for the electricity sector.
In a report for AWS, environmental consultants AWN Consulting said that the estimated greenhouse gas emissions for the permitted development range from 213,840 tonnes of carbon dioxide this year to 132,164 tonnes in 2030 which would then equate to 4.4 per cent of the electricity sector emission ceiling.
The consultants said that the greenhouse gas emissions for the overall data campus project at Cruiserath would be 262,535 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2030 which would equate to 8.8 per cent of the 2030 emission ceiling.
AWN Consulting said that the assessment of the proposed development and overall project had taken into account the relevant national and sectoral adaptation plans and the environmental assessment process “has ensured that the proposed development and overall project is climate proofed”.
