Where are all the data centres and why should you care?

Ireland is the data centre capital of the world with 89 data centres storing your Instagram reels, TikTok dances and endless folders of photos that keep us connected in the digital world.

Data goliaths like this are at the centre of the rise in AI, with every ChatGPT prompt or AI-generated image requiring huge amounts of data to be processed.

But why should you care?

Because data centres have a major environmental cost too.

In order to keep social media scrolling, data centres use huge numbers of backup and emergency generators to stay online when the electrical grid can’t provide them with enough power.

These generators run on fossil fuels and our investigative work has exposed that generators attached to Irish data centres have released huge quantities of CO2 over the past few years.

To provide a complete picture of this energy-sapping industry, The Journal Investigates mapped — for the first time — all operating and planned data centres in Ireland.