Datacentres used 22% of country’s electricity last year, pushing up household bills, study suggests

Ireland’s growing number of datacentres last year used 22% of the country’s electricity, more than all urban homes combined, according to the Central Statistics Office. The equivalent figure in the US and UK is 6%.

The centres have “drained” €715m (£620m) from the Irish economy and increased household bills by a cumulative average of €360 between 2015 and 2023, said the report commissioned by Friends of the Earth Ireland and Beyond Fossil Fuels. It argued that Irish households have been subsidising big tech via a “hidden data centre tax” on their electricity bills.