With aspirations to usher in an era of economic growth, Ireland has welcomed the construction of numerous AI-focused data centers in and around Dublin. But as the energy use from these mega-warehouses has driven up costs for all residents, concerns are mounting over their long-term viability, Tech Xplore reported.
In order to power the generative AI models that have exploded in popularity over the last few years, companies need to build enormous warehouses that can house banks of computers in constant use. It follows that these warehouses utilize massive amounts of power and water, both to keep the computers on and to keep the temperatures regulated.
Unfortunately, these costs have added up quickly for Ireland, which has reported the highest burden worldwide to the International Energy Agency, Tech Xplore said. After assessing that these warehouses consumed 21% of the nation's electricity — more than all of the urban homes combined — the country's grid operator halted the construction of new data centers in Dublin until 2028.
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One activist, Darragh Adelaide, said that there was "an outrageous number of data centers," explaining that "people have started to make the connection between the amount of electricity they're using and electricity prices going up."
Another resident, KK Kenny, agreed. "We can't sustain them," he lamented.
Americans living near massive data centers, which often power AI or crypto mining, are facing similar issues. According to research from the University of California Riverside, the air pollution caused by AI centers is expected to cause as many as 1,300 premature deaths a year by 2030. Additionally, they reported, "its public health costs from cancers, asthma, other diseases, and missed work and school days are approaching an estimated $20 billion a year."
For the Irish, who are now scrambling to determine how to proceed when it comes to both maintaining and expanding their data center impact, this marks a significant crossroads not only for the country but for the world.
Paul Deane, an energy researcher with University College Cork, warned that the country is a "microcosm of what many countries could be facing over the next decade, particularly with the growth of AI."
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