Lawyers for Google Ireland Ltd have claimed South Dublin County Council erred in fact and in law in refusing planning permission for the firm’s planned new data centre for Grange Castle Business Park in south Dublin.
The four-page legal letter by Google Ireland’s legal representative, AL Goodbody, forms part of a comprehensive appeal to An Bord Pleanála against the council refusal issued last month.
In its decision, the council cited what it called “the existing insufficient capacity in the electricity network [grid] and the lack of significant on-site renewable energy to power the data centre” as reasons for refusal.
Now, AL Goodbody points out Google had already secured a grid connection for the data centre extension from EirGrid in 2021 and says the council is not the appropriate body to determine whether or not there is sufficient capacity on the network to accommodate the data centre “and has made a clear error on the facts and circumstances related to the proposed development”.
AL Goodbody said: “EirGrid had already contracted with GIL to provide it with import capacity for the proposed development and therefore has already factored this demand into its capacity/demand forecasts”.
Google is planning for the application to be the third phase of the Google Ireland data centre campus at Grange Castle Business Park and involves the creation of 800 construction jobs and 50 jobs when operational.
The new 72,400sq m data storage facility involves the construction of eight data halls on a 50-acre greenfield/brownfield site.
In the main 42-page appeal document drawn up by planning consultants, Arup, they say despite recognition in the South Dublin County Development Plan 2022-2028 of the need for data centre development, the council has refused planning permission to every new data centre application which has been submitted since the commencement of the County Development Plan.
The appeal says this amounts to four refusals primarily on the same ground — insufficient capacity in the electricity network.
Arup says the council’s error over its claim that there is insufficient grid capacity to allow the development “goes to the central pillar of SDCC’s decision”.
Arup says it does not appear any consultation was undertaken with EirGrid by the council before the refusal was issued.
It adds “this suggests that SDCC reached its decision without access to comprehensive and authoritative information regarding the electricity network’s capacity”.
The appeal says “this approach raises clear concerns about the accuracy and validity of its conclusions and how well informed its decision was”.
The appeal says the data centre will be Google Ireland’s third data centre building and “is needed to meet the growing demand for computing power, arising from increased internet use and adoption of artificial intelligence”.
It says data centres serve “as the backbone of an increasingly digitally connected society” and the foundation of cloud computing services.
The appeal further says it is correct to acknowledge data centres do consume a large amount of energy.
It adds: “It should also not be overlooked that they contribute to carbon de-intensification in other ways.” These include the widespread use of video-conferencing and facilitate remote working capabilities which help to reduce emissions from business travel.
The appeal is due to be decided at the end of January.