Data Centres will soon have to follow new laws

DATA centres around Ireland will soon have to follow new laws implementing the use of waste energy to heat local homes and businesses.

In Tallaght, Amazon Web Services’ data centre has been supplying heat to the South Dublin County Council offices as well as several buildings on TUD’s campus, which was Ireland’s first low-carbon sourced district heating system.

A system similar to that used in TUD could be adopted nationwide, which would see district heating systems transmit constant heat through a network of insulated underground pipelines to buildings.

This standalone project will be rolled out nationwide following the implementation of the EU’s newly published Energy Efficiency Directive, which will ensure data centres with total rated energy inputs exceeding one megawatt put their waste heat to positive use.

As the number of data centres in Ireland increases, electricity grids and natural resources, such as water, could come under additional pressure, while carbon emissions also rise.

Currently, there are 32 data centres in operation in the SDCC administrative area, up from 24 in May 2025.

This number is set to continue to grow, as SDCC has granted permission for 42 data centres in total, “across a number of approved data centre developments.”

The integration of data centres in the energy system is important to limit the environmental impacts and to ensure they are high energy- and water-efficient.

New data centres and existing centres that are being refurbished will be covered by the legislation, unless they can prove waste heat recovery is technically or economically unfeasible.

The Echo understands that the Irish District Energy Association (IrDEA) discussed this topic at its annual conference held on September 30, at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel in Dublin 8.

While the Amazon data centre in Tallaght was a bespoke design, it is understood that the IrDEA conference will hear calls for the Government to design a standardised system to ensure harnessing waste heat is a streamlined and cost-effective process.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme