Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 15 November 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Future Licences and Contracts to Connect Data Centres to the Gas Network: Discussion

Ms Marie Donnelly:

-----co-location or shared centre, it can be more efficient. It is something that perhaps can be developed more thoroughly in the country.

When one talks about ultimately going forward for the economy and for society in Ireland, one talks about the offshore wind. It is a fabulous resource. Most of Europe is looking at us with envy for it. I agree we need to harness it. When we harness it, we need to use it to the best return for Ireland. The council has argued and, indeed, many people have said that we need to look at the best value added that we can get out of that. It might be electrons in the form of electricity. It might be molecules in the form of hydrogen. It could be even higher valued - up the chain of the value added. If we look at data centres, they use electricity to run the data centre but converting that electricity into data is adding value. It is effectively an industrial process that gives a return to the country. Some of those elements perhaps have not been communicated very well. I am sorry I am coming back to the point that maybe we are just not able to communicate properly some of these very complex issues to people.

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