An average sized data centre in Ireland uses the same amount of electricity as Kilkenny town.
An Oireachtas Committee has been warned data centres could demand 70 per cent of Ireland's electricity by 2030 if all planning permissions are followed through.
Currently they use around 10 per cent of Ireland's energy - much higher than the international average.
Dr Patrick Bresnihan from NUI Maynooth told an Oireachtas Committee that demand is increasing:
"Over the last four years there has been an annual increase in demand usage, around 600 gigawatts from data centres alone which is equivalent to the addition of 140,000 households to the power system each year. An average data centre with a load of 16 mega watts is comparable to the usage of a large town or small city such as Kilkenny."
