Before they have even finished building their first data centre in Drogheda the e-commerce giant Amazon has been given permission by Meath County Council for a second facility on the same site.
The new plant will be built in the IDA Business and Technology Park which is just across the Louth /Meath county boundary on the Donore Road.
Plans for the huge 28,566 sqm facility, which is thought to represent an investment of some €350m from Amazon, were first submitted in March.
It will be the second of three similar plants that Amazon has planned for the site. Their first Drogheda data centre is due to be fully operational by 2023 and the second by mid-2026.
Amazon is investing heavily in Ireland and last July it was announced that it will create 1,000 highly skilled permanent jobs in Counties Cork and Dublin but the Drogheda data centres are expected to employ a much smaller number of people, estimated to number about 60, and they will be in less skilled roles.
The increasing number of new data centres springing up in Ireland in recent years has given rise to concerns over the huge electricity and water requirements.
The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) and Eirgrid have both warned of possible rolling blackouts and have urged urgent action be taken.
Such is the high electrical usage of data centres, Eirgrid has moved to protect the national grid by demanding that they generate at least half of their own energy.
As a result, Amazon’s new Drogheda data centre will have it’s own 110 kilovolt generator and a bank of solar panels across its roofs.
