Amazon has been granted planning permission for a new data center in Drogheda, County Meath, Ireland.
County Meath Council this week granted approval to developer Tunis Properties LLC on behalf of Amazon for a two-story data center at the Drogheda IDA Business & Technology Park. The Irish Independent reports the facility will have a capacity of 48MW.
Plans for the 28,566 sqm (307,400 sq ft) facility were first submitted in March. The new data center will be located to the north of Amazon’s existing data center development in the business park and will contain data halls, associated electrical and mechanical plant rooms, a loading bay, maintenance and storage space, office administration areas, screened plant, and solar panels at roof level.
The new data center is the second of three Amazon has planned for the site. The Irish Business Post reports the company will invest around €350 million ($424m) in the project.
Amazon first Drogheda data center was granted planning permission in early 2020, with the facility due to be fully operational by 2023. The second facility would be likely to begin in mid-2023 and be fully operational by June 2026.
The approval comes at a time when future data center development in Ireland has come under close scrutiny.
The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) recently told national grid manager EirGrid and ESB Networks to prioritize applications for data centers in regions where power supplies are not struggling or risk rolling blackouts.
The request has left the future of up to 30 proposed data centers in limbo. Eirgrid has agreed to connect 1,800MW of data centers, but has applications for another 2,000MW, mostly around the Dublin area.
In March, EirGrid said it might require new energy-demanding projects such as data centers to be built near to renewable energy sources, which are mostly located on the west coast and away from Dublin.
