FAILURE to halt the spread of data centres will undermine the climate action efforts of the general public, a Dáil committee has heard. Ms Whitmore proposed an amendment to the bill seeking a 100pc target for renewable electricity generation by 2030. Ms Whitmore said unless power usage from data centres was capped, they would use all the additional renewable power generated from new wind farms being planned. “We want people to use electric vehicles but if they are using energy that’s not coming from renewables because we are powering data centres, that will undermine those individual efforts to do the right thing.”Independent Deputy Naughten described the situation as “perverse”. “I am not against data centres but they should be directly connected with employment in this country.

Source: Irish Independent June 09, 2021 18:11 UTC