Written answer
Data Centres
449. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the amount of drinking water used by data centres in Ireland annually; whether his Department has conducted research to project the water usage of data centres into the future; and if his Department has conducted, or is conducting, research on the sustainability of data centres water usage. [25230/26]
Comment on this
Article 12 of the Energy Efficiency Directive 2023/1791 (‘EED’) provides for an obligation for Member States to require that owners and operators of certain sized data centres monitor and make publicly available, subject to Union and national law protecting trade and business secrets and confidentiality, information on key metrics on their energy and sustainability performance. The required indicators relate to energy consumption, cooling, waste heat utilisation, water usage and renewable energy use, among others.
As part of the implementation of the EED, data centres in Ireland are reporting this information to a confidential EU database on data centres established and operated by the European Commission. Reporting is ongoing and the Commission is responsible for making it publicly available in an aggregated manner. This information is being used to establish an EU wide rating scheme to measure and promote efficiencies in the energy and sustainability performance of data centres, including water. The Commission has recently opened a public consultation on its draft legislation to give effect to this rating scheme.
More generally, water usage management and conservation across commercial and industrial (non-domestic) sectors, including data centres, is an operational matter under the remit of Uisce Éireann. Uisce Éireann has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operations at national, regional and local levels. Uisce Éireann has a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives that can be contacted via email to oireachtasmembers@water.ie or by telephone 0818 578 578.