Google has turned the sod on a major expansion of its Irish data centre footprint, with a €150 million project at its existing Grange Castle South site in south county Dublin, supported by IDA Ireland.
With Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD, Pat Breen TD, Minister of State for Trade, Business and EU Digital Single Market, and local TD Francis Fitzgerald, at the facility, Denis Browne, EU Regional Data Centre lead, Google, said that Dublin is a key site in the European data centre family, and will host many of its cloud-based services, such as Gmail, Maps, and YouTube for the Europe, Middle East and Africa territories.
“Our data centres are designed to be highly energy-efficient, for example our data centre here in Dublin uses advanced air-cooling technologies taking advantage of our country’s ‘temperate climate’ to regulate the temperature of the servers. Efforts such as this are vital to our ongoing environmental initiatives such as our recent global achievement of purchasing enough renewable energy to match all the electricity we consumed last year, as well as maintaining our long-established carbon neutral status, something we’re very proud to have held continuously since 2007,” said Browne.
Minister Humphreys emphasised Ireland’s software industry, now worth some €16 billion a year in exports, as well as the efforts in education to meet the needs of the technology industry, all of which help drive the economy along with inward investment.
Half a billion investment
“This €150 million data centre expansion brings the company’s total investment in its Irish data centres alone to €500 million, and its capital expenditure to almost €1 billion. There is no denying that this is a considerable vote of confidence in Ireland as a place to do business. Not only that, but given the importance of data centres in keeping web-based and cloud services running smoothly, this development is also an endorsement of our country’s technical expertise and infrastructure. The business sector in Ireland is an ecosystem that benefits from positive news like this, so I am absolutely delighted to welcome this significant investment.”
“In addition to the very tangible effect that an investment such as this has on an area, the Copenhagen Economics report released today has shown that Google’s presence here has numerous knock-on benefits too,” said Minister Breen. “The report highlights that the productivity and competitiveness of local suppliers and businesses benefit from Google’s existence through spill-over of the company’s managerial knowledge and operational practices. Other companies who might look to invest in Ireland will acknowledge Google’s recognition of the high level of skills, suppliers and resources here, greatly increasing our attractiveness for additional foreign direct investment.”
Data centre impact report
The report from Copenhagen Economics found that the data centre sector is a significant contributor to economies where the facilities are sited.
“Data centres are the equivalent of steam engines in the Industrial Revolution,” said Martin Thelle, managing partner, Copenhagen Economics.
In economic terms, Thelle said that “a lot of change comes about because of facilities like these”.
He said the study had found there are direct and indirect impacts from the siting of data centres, promoting both economical growth locally, supporting the community directly, and signalling to attract further investment.
According to the report, between the years of 2011 and 2017, the Google facility represented a €350 million direct investment in construction and operations, while there was €400 million contribution to Ireland’s GDP, with the creation of an average of 700 jobs a year, directly and indirectly.
All of this is in the context of a deep commitment to green energy and sustainability.
“Our data centres are essential to our operations, both in Ireland and across the larger EMEA region, allowing consumers and business to use our cloud-based tools and software far more efficiently and effectively,” said Terence McGoff, engineering director, Google. “This investment shows our continued commitment to Ireland as a key driver for the whole EMEA region, and we’re proud to see that total capital investment by Google in Ireland has reached a total of €1 billion since we first opened an office here in Dublin fifteen years ago.”
Operational transparency
McGoff said that the company as a whole is committed to transparency on its data centre operations and publishes figures for Power usage effectiveness (PUE), as well as the sourcing of renewable energy where ever possible, or offsetting where not. The company has been carbon neutral since 2007.
Browne said that carbon neutrality and energy sustainability were core values for the company, not just in the EMEA region but globally.
He said this focus manifests in three key areas, running highly energy efficient data centres, buying renewables that match 100% of our energy consumption, and buying carbon offsets for our remaining footprint.
Speaking to TechPro, McGoff said that the Irish data centre facilities take full advantage of free cooling where air is taken directly from outside, brought through the facilities and exhausted directly, massively reducing the energy required to cool.
McGoff said the new facility will employ about 400 workers at peak, during construction. When operational, a dedicated cloud development team, based in the Velasco Building in Dublin city, will work to develop and promote the cloud services from the new capacity.
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