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Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

theregister.com

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Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#281

Post by oliwarner »

cadamsdotcom wrote: post #135

Just to be contrarian: what we're talking about is "electricity use from economic activity". This should be good for Ireland but they'll need to build energy capacity to keep up. It's misplaced to be angry about datacenters themselves. There IS value being created, or people wouldn't use the tools. Construction creates jobs, manufacturing the machines in the buildings is a huge global industry; the value people gain…

And that's grand, but when these things contest for the same resources I use (electricity, natural gas, water, rolling countryside unblemished by pylons), and I already see my bills soaring from a pair of absolutely unnecessary wars, I worry.

The grid is only looking after its capacity. When Grange Castle announced they're adding nearly 200MW of generation (for a nearly 1GW site) planners whoop with joy but that's 200GW of gas turbine for when they've spiked the wholesale price of electricity. It's not grid-surplus storage.

That sort of economic activity drives inflation. Well before you consider maybe-effects like job reduction.

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#282

Post by infinite_spin »

spwa4 wrote: post #276
infinite_spin wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/publications/publication-files/... > it is estimated that in 2024, of the order of ~€104bn in annual GVA, 876,000 jobs and €14.6bn in annual employment related tax was enabled by the availability of digital infrastructure provided by data centres located in Ireland. Seems like the economics of hosting these data centers benefits Ireland substantially, even with their tax breaks.

Yes, at the cost of removing at least double, and for FANG companies about triple, the tax revenue from other EU governments. And that's just counting company tax (and only specific companies, ie. this is why the "billionnaire tax" is so low, well, this is the EU component of it) (technically: FANG taxes in Ireland, in violation of OECD treaties, is 12.5%, and for other very large companies 15%. If your company is no…

Why should Ireland, a historically poor nation that has been exploited by European powers for centuries, be concerned with the taxes that other (much larger) governments collect? The entire point of tax sovereignty is to avoid this exact issue.

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#283

Post by trollbridge »

hunterpayne wrote: post #133
trollbridge wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but Ireland has a looser regulatory environment where it’s easier for a data centre operator to buy off the relevant government regulators.

Which is most of Ireland's economy. I am fine with pulling the plug on them. They are not. I mean, who wants to lose 2/3rd of their GDP overnight?

Such are the perils of democracy. Sometimes people actually want that growth and don’t want to be a zero growth state forever.

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#284

Post by wat10000 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #239
wat10000 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The doctors would also have agreed and signed a contract. And the debt owner i.e. the state is calling it due.

Are you claiming that is a fact about the world today or suggesting it as your future hypothetical? Seems fine if the government or another group was willing to lend or pay for education in exchange for future services. I think it would be bad policy if the government made this the only way or a licensing requirement. There are also some moral hazards if the exit Clauses aren't reasonable.

I believe that’s how it is in some places. In others, there’s no obligation after receiving a subsidized education, and this would be a way to fix that. I doubt many people would propose or defend a system where graduates are required to work for the state or go to prison.

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#285

Post by esseph »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #279
esseph wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This might just be my bubble, but us there that much AI being used for girlfriends/scams, or even reels these days? How would you react if you got a panicked call from your spouse and it came from their phone number? To answer your question, it's a series of different but huge problems. https://www.iansresearch.com/resources/all-blogs/post/securi... https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20260603-20-minutes... ht…

>How would you react if you got a panicked call from your spouse and it came from their phone number? I would be surprised if an AI successfully imitated the batshit insane way my wife and I speak to one another, but I get how that could work for, say, a grandparent or aunty. >There's also a whole industry of basically "virtual onlyfans" models that generate a TON of content and ad impressions on everything from Inst…

https://fortune.com/europe/2024/02/21/ai-influencers-secreti...

https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-models-creators-see-succe...

https://www.euronews.com/culture/2026/03/17/meet-jessica-fos...

> Like you do hear a lot of stories about this kind of thing happening, but I haven't ever seen a figure that says something like "$x million lost to AI scams" the way you do with romance scams or crypto.

Most people don't have a couple mil laying around. If you mean collectively, how many dudes are going to call the FBI or whatever and admit their life savings are fucked because they fell for AI goon bait? I expect not many.

> would be surprised if an AI successfully imitated the batshit insane way my wife and I speak to one another, but I get how that could work for, say, a grandparent or aunty.

What if her emails and texts between you had been scraped? Very easy and to grab that and record voice with single click or no-click tap jacking attacks.

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#286

Post by [deleted] »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #279
esseph wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This might just be my bubble, but us there that much AI being used for girlfriends/scams, or even reels these days? How would you react if you got a panicked call from your spouse and it came from their phone number? To answer your question, it's a series of different but huge problems. https://www.iansresearch.com/resources/all-blogs/post/securi... https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20260603-20-minutes... ht…

>How would you react if you got a panicked call from your spouse and it came from their phone number? I would be surprised if an AI successfully imitated the batshit insane way my wife and I speak to one another, but I get how that could work for, say, a grandparent or aunty. >There's also a whole industry of basically "virtual onlyfans" models that generate a TON of content and ad impressions on everything from Inst…

[deleted]

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#287

Post by tialaramex »

rsynnott wrote: post #265
tialaramex wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were to look at a map you'd see that Ireland is on the other side of a bigger island. Sure enough France exports up to about 4GW to the UK, and the UK exports up to about 1GW to Ireland. Right now, it being the middle of the night here, France sends us about 2.5GW and we sent Ireland about 500 MW. Electricity being fungible by nature it doesn't really mean anything to say that's French electricity when it reac…

> France sends us about 2.5GW and we sent Ireland about 500 MW. It's also a two-way flow; while UK Ireland transmission tends to net out to UK->Ireland, it's fairly variable; to a large extent whichever side currently has too much wind is the donor.

I believe all of the modern UK interconnects are bi-directional. Most countries have cheaper power when our wind doesn't blow but can't get enough cheap wind power from us when it does.

Current government plans don't seem to take this into account. 40GW of wind power doesn't seem like "basically enough" when you're doing 10GW exports.

They did at least ban "rebidding" where you get permission to build a wind farm, but you think the price you agreed to isn't what you'd prefer so you just bid again next time like nothing happened. Some of the projects which low balled are now stuck, either build it as promised and collect a smaller profit than you'd hoped for or fuck off, no second chances

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#288

Post by dzhiurgis »

erentz wrote: post #181
cadamsdotcom wrote: post #135

Just to be contrarian: what we're talking about is "electricity use from economic activity". This should be good for Ireland but they'll need to build energy capacity to keep up. It's misplaced to be angry about datacenters themselves. There IS value being created, or people wouldn't use the tools. Construction creates jobs, manufacturing the machines in the buildings is a huge global industry; the value people gain…

> There IS value being created, or people wouldn't use the tools. But for who and where is it realized? Ireland’s massive data centers aren’t there to serve Ireland’s tiny population. The value is exported overseas and profits realized overseas. So what really matters for Ireland (and any country/region hosting these data centers) is whether the benefits in terms of capital spending + the few ongoing jobs created out…

So we hating exports now? Is this post-globalist forum now?

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#289

Post by peab »

hunterpayne wrote: post #116
vkou wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of the pro-datacenter 'externalities don't matter as long as I make money' is also pretty obviously astroturfed. The difference is that much of the communication on that end happens in backchannels, directly with the regulators, in secret meetings, without any possibility of public scrutiny. (When that isn't enough, the firehose of paid advertisements gets fired up to convince the public, instead.)

The vast majority of the anti-datacenter movement is funded by the CCP. That's why it is so lacking in facts. Most datacenters use closed loop cooling. That means it doesn't consume water for anything more than the toilets and water fountains. Yet this talking point pops up in almost every article on the topic. Part of the reason you are seeing closed door meetings now is because leaders know that the public is profo…

exactly. All of the arguments I see against data centers are simply arguments against industrialization.

The dirty water bit is the most ridiculous thing. It's meant to paint the picture that the data centers themselves are using the water and dirtying it, when in reality the cause is the development of the actual buildings and infrastructure, which would happen with any industrial development!

Re: Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

#290

Post by peab »

vkou wrote: post #72
peab wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's an unnatural amount of doomerism against datacenters, of exactly this kind. It's pretty obviously astroturfed.

The vast majority of the pro-datacenter 'externalities don't matter as long as I make money' is also pretty obviously astroturfed. The difference is that much of the communication on that end happens in backchannels, directly with the regulators, in secret meetings, without any possibility of public scrutiny. (When that isn't enough, the firehose of paid advertisements gets fired up to convince the public, instead.)

No, not really. My comments are organic - they come from a place of frustration, seeing such trivially wrong arguments against data centers.

All the arguments I see against data centers are arguments against industrialization. There are also arguments against capitalism and wealth inequality, that I sympathise with.

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