Apple Athenry data centre

Just going back to Microsoft, they did a deal back late last year to buy whole output from a wind farm in Kerry here's the press release:

Microsoft commitment will add 37 megawatts of clean energy to Irish grid.
DUBLIN — Oct. 9, 2017 — On Monday, Microsoft Corp. announced a new wind energy agreement in Ireland. With the agreement, Microsoft will become one of the first multinational technology companies to support a new wind project in Ireland.
Microsoft is entering into a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with GE to purchase 100 percent of the wind energy from its new, 37-megawatt Tullahennel wind farm in County Kerry, Ireland. The agreement will help support the growing demand for Microsoft Cloud services from Ireland. As part of the deal, Microsoft also signed an agreement with Dublin-based energy trading company ElectroRoute; it will provide energy trading services to Microsoft.

In addition to producing energy, the project will produce valuable data on energy storage. Each turbine will have an integrated battery; Microsoft and GE will test how these batteries can be used to capture and store excess energy, and then provide it back to the grid as needed. This provides more predictable power to an increasingly green Irish grid, by smoothing out peaks and valleys in wind production. This will better enable intermittent clean power sources like wind energy to be added to the Irish grid. This will be the first deployment of battery integration into wind turbines to store energy in Europe.

“Microsoft is proud to be deepening our long history of investment and partnership in Ireland with this agreement,” said Christian Belady, general manager, Datacenter Strategy at Microsoft. “Our commitment will help bring new, clean energy to the Irish grid, and contains innovative elements that have the potential to grow the capacity, reliability and capability of the grid. This will make it easier to incorporate new clean power sources like wind energy, and that is good for the environment, for Ireland and for our company.”

This PPA builds on Microsoft’s strategic partnership with GE, announced last year. The wind farm will integrate GE’s Digital Wind Farm technology, which makes renewable energy outputs even more reliable. Digital models, built on the Predix platform, ensure energy generation supplied can meet demand forecasted and reduce intermittency concerns.

Andres Isaza, chief commercial officer of GE Renewable Energy, said, “This partnership with Microsoft expands GE’s considerable presence and investment in Ireland, where we already employ over 1,500 people and in particular in the renewable energy sector. Wind is now one of the most competitive sources of electricity on the market today, and we’re excited about the capability to use data generated from these wind turbines, using the Predix platform, to maximize the output and value of this project.”

Microsoft is also acquiring an Irish energy supply license from GE. The supply license will benefit both Microsoft and the Irish power grid, as it allows the company the flexibility to easily grow and invest in renewable energy in Ireland over time. ElectroRoute will act as trading service provider for the supply company.

“ElectroRoute is delighted to work with Microsoft and GE to structure and manage the energy trading activities for the supply company,” said Ronan Doherty, chief executive at ElectroRoute. “The wind energy sector is particularly vibrant in Ireland at the moment, and we are seeing the emergence of an array of new structures and procurement approaches, which I feel will persist and grow into the future.”

This agreement continues Microsoft’s history of supporting sustainability projects in Ireland, including a new forestry initiative announced earlier this year and investments in energy efficiency measures and technologies that have greatly reduced its energy and water footprint.

Once operational, the new wind project will bring Microsoft’s total global direct procurement in renewable energy projects to almost 600 megawatts. In 2016, Microsoft set clean energy commitments to power its datacenters and bring new renewable energy sources online in the communities in which it operates.

https://news.microsoft.com/2017/10/09/microsoft-ge-sign-agreement-on-new-wind-project-in-ireland/

Irish Times as well:
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/microsoft-and-general-electric-invest-in-irish-wind-technology-1.3249462

15 year guaranteed purchase pricing obviously made that wind farm alot more commercially viable for GE to build. Nice feature having built in battery in each turbine as well, which according to the blurb is a first for a European windfarm.

I called it

Not at all surprised, once the Supreme Court gave the go ahead to appeal the only way this was going to go was to Europe at which point they (Apple, Irish govt etc) were always going to lose the case

Well done, the appeals system worked as designed to prevent a poorly planned project from going ahead, absolutely delighted

As for Alan and Sinead being pariahs, there might be a few thick rednecks who are irritated but in the main, most locals in Athenry didn't give the data center much thought.

Also, data centres as strategic infrastructure, don't make me laugh. A single challenge in the courts will put the end to thar nonsense.

dubhthach wrote: »

Meanwhile Google just started work on spending 150m on expanding their datacenter in Grange Castle, it's only an Ass roar away from Microsoft's 'Data Center campus' which currently has at least three data centers (and room for another three to build)

That area is full of data centers lots of co location ones in there too. Between there and the Blanchard’s town area west Dublin has a hell of a lot of DCs. Add in all amazons too which are all over west Dublin.

salmocab wrote: »

That area is full of data centers lots of co location ones in there too. Between there and the Blanchard’s town area west Dublin has a hell of a lot of DCs. Add in all amazons too which are all over west Dublin.

Yup and the monster data center that Facebook are building in Clonee, it stands out on google maps that's for sure!
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Portan,+Clonee,+Co.+Meath/@53.4137186,-6.4436552,2229m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48676d0cc403d8d1:0xa00c7a99731a420!8m2!3d53.4105621!4d-6.4426

In Grange Castle other than Microsoft and Google ye have Telecity (aka DEG) which is generally co-location. I have 4 racks of equipment in there myself!

In general Dublin has 3-4 Data center clusters, ye generally looking at least 5km between each cluster, which make sense for Disaster recovery scenarios etc.

dubhthach wrote: »

Yup and the monster data center that Facebook are building in Clonee, it stands out on google maps that's for sure!
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Portan,+Clonee,+Co.+Meath/@53.4137186,-6.4436552,2229m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48676d0cc403d8d1:0xa00c7a99731a420!8m2!3d53.4105621!4d-6.4426

In Grange Castle other than Microsoft and Google ye have Telecity (aka DEG) which is generally co-location. I have 4 racks of equipment in there myself!

In general Dublin has 3-4 Data center clusters, ye generally looking at least 5km between each cluster, which make sense for Disaster recovery scenarios etc.

Most of that Facebook one is up and running now.

salmocab wrote: »

Most of that Facebook one is up and running now.

Indeed Daly seems to have been quite about it, he's more interested in the Amazon one (all 21k square metres of it!) that is to be built nearby in Mulhuddart, though given the size of AWS and their talking of building another 7 data centers on the site, it's no wonder he's got a boner for them.

Amazon have done a good job taking old big closed factories that no one was likely to want and re purposing them. Drove by the one on the Belgard road today. Big aul spot.

I'm guessing these objectors won't be too popular!

billbond4

RoboKlopp wrote: »

I'm guessing these objectors won't be too popular!

Its the local authorities that let it go this far that should be getting the blame, they should have told apple that they need to supply the energy as we don't have the infrastructure for it (like Microsoft have done)
Apple were probably told do whatever ye want, that's the problem

Fann Linn

billbond4 wrote: »

Its the local authorities that let it go this far that should be getting the blame, they should have told apple that they need to supply the energy as we don't have the infrastructure for it (like Microsoft have done)
Apple were probably told do whatever ye want, that's the problem

Nothing to do with local authorities. Cheap shot.
This place got pp all the way up and down the line. The delay in the Supreme court is the problem.

Ardent

Deleted User wrote: »

...most locals in Athenry didn't give the data center much thought.

Dunno, going by the Athenry For Apple facebook group, there are a lot of very upset folks.

Deleted User wrote: »

I called it

Not at all surprised, once the Supreme Court gave the go ahead to appeal the only way this was going to go was to Europe at which point they (Apple, Irish govt etc) were always going to lose the case

Well done, the appeals system worked as designed to prevent a poorly planned project from going ahead, absolutely delighted

As for Alan and Sinead being pariahs, there might be a few thick rednecks who are irritated but in the main, most locals in Athenry didn't give the data center much thought.

Also, data centres as strategic infrastructure, don't make me laugh. A single challenge in the courts will put the end to thar nonsense.

You are way off the mark. Sad to see this from someone with their location down as Galway. You are in a tiny minority's lost people with eyes and a brain know this is a terrible day for Galway and the west. I've heard that the feeling around the town today is one of massive anger, this will cost co Galway millions and millions and god knows how many jobs over the coming years.

billbond4 wrote: »

Its the local authorities that let it go this far that should be getting the blame, they should have told apple that they need to supply the energy as we don't have the infrastructure for it (like Microsoft have done)
Apple were probably told do whatever ye want, that's the problem

It's not the local authorities fault it's a the fault of a stupid system. You should not have the right to keep appealing these decisions simple as that. Once the initial objection is dismissed then one appeal should be allowed and only by people living within a few miles of a development. Once this appeal is dismissed that's it, no going crying to higher courts or to Europe or whatever other nonsense is possible now. One appeal and then shut up and go home.

billbond4

Fann Linn wrote: »

Nothing to do with local authorities. Cheap shot.
This place got pp all the way up and down the line. The delay in the Supreme court is the problem.

Not a cheap shot at them, they should have asked a relevant department in the government about power requirements and infrastructure required to support the full data centre.
They didnt do their job properly at the start.
I do agree that the planning process did take way to long as well.

If the court had thrown it out as rejected, the antis would have merit. But Apple announced a data centre in Denmark at the same time as ours, and it’s operational. Once the decision is made, it needs to stay made. No more “appeals”. Appeals are nothing more than a “who has more time & money to fight this” contest. Even if your case has no merit, if you hate enough you can use appeals to impose a time penalty. In this case the time penalty was enough for the antis to win. Nothing to do with the merits of the case.

zom

billbond4 wrote: »

Its the local authorities that let it go this far that should be getting the blame

NONSENSE !! Over billion dollars investment with with power consumption on the level of all Galway is not "local authorities" interest. IT IS NATIONAL.
But since we have Taoiseach who takes more care of his socks than Irish economy and development we should be grateful we have any foreign investments in Ireland.

bunderoon

dubhthach wrote: »

Just going back to Microsoft, they did a deal back late last year to buy whole output from a wind farm in Kerry here's the press release:

https://news.microsoft.com/2017/10/09/microsoft-ge-sign-agreement-on-new-wind-project-in-ireland/

Irish Times as well:
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/microsoft-and-general-electric-invest-in-irish-wind-technology-1.3249462

15 year guaranteed purchase pricing obviously made that wind farm alot more commercially viable for GE to build. Nice feature having built in battery in each turbine as well, which according to the blurb is a first for a European windfarm.

So MS buying the windfarm results in one less windfarm to contribute to the over renewable target we agreed with the EU. And in doing so, making us even more exposed to the massive fines and for longer, until another windfarm of similar output is built, comes online and cancels out the one that MS bought.

billbond4

Where are you getting Billions of investment from?
Once the data centre is built thats the construction jobs done.
The bulk of the "850€ million" is made up of servers that will be rolled off a plane and wired up.
The number of jobs being 150 seems over the top.

Im saying the local authorities messed up and should have stopped the planning in the first place, they didnt check all the details properly but they wont get any of the blame for not doing their job.

Its a pity for the people who were lead on my politicians and the media

Larbre34

zom wrote: »

NONSENSE !! Over billion dollars investment with with power consumption on the level of all Galway is not "local authorities" interest. IT IS NATIONAL.
But since we have Taoiseach who takes more care of his socks than Irish economy and development we should be grateful we have any foreign investments in Ireland.

What a load. Governments have come and gone and the IDA and Enterprise Ireland have been the best in the world at what they do for 50 years despite the best efforts of NIMBYs and incompetent ministers. The system is there to facilitate and incentivise job creators and investors, just sometimes vexatious and resourced objectors with their own narrow agendae ruin it for everybody. Varadkar or any minister cannot intervene in legal objections.

Apple should sell the site to Center Parcs at this stage.

AlekSmart

Deleted User wrote: »

I called it

Not at all surprised, once the Supreme Court gave the go ahead to appeal the only way this was going to go was to Europe at which point they (Apple, Irish govt etc) were always going to lose the case

Well done, the appeals system worked as designed to prevent a poorly planned project from going ahead, absolutely delighted

As for Alan and Sinead being pariahs, there might be a few thick rednecks who are irritated but in the main, most locals in Athenry didn't give the data center much thought.

Also, data centres as strategic infrastructure, don't make me laugh. A single challenge in the courts will put the end to thar nonsense.

Laugh ?

At what ?

Ireland,has something unique in it's location and climate,which has given it an added value to the likes of Google,Apple,Amazon and others for the location of facilities such as Data Centres.

Capitalizing on this previously derided cool,damp,temperate climate is what gives it a "Strategic Value", and one which could,& should be expoited and used to push Ireland to the fore.

There are more than enough empty engineering facilities,factories and warehouses around the West to ask what has become of their former staff.

In this case the appeals "system" did indeed work,however that same system was found wanting in how it deals with obstructionist,vexatious and frankly isolated individuals keen to impose their crusades upon the Rest of the West.

what_traffic

AlekSmart wrote: »

Capitalizing on this previously derided cool,damp,temperate climate is what gives it a "Strategic Value", and one which could,& should be expoited and used to push Ireland to the fore.

Ya but "Strategic Value" for whom?
Some Private Company, YES.
Citizens of Ireland, NO.

Strategic infrastructure is Water, Hospitals, Schools, Roads, Ports, Electricity - stuff that people here actually use on a daily basis.

Zzippy

How many actual, full-time skilled jobs would this data centre have created? I've heard similar data centres employ 20-30 people full-time, most of whom are maintenance technicians/support staff. Would a short-term construction boom for Athenry really bring that much long-term value to the town? With no guarantees that any of the contractors/sub contractors would be local. 20-30 jobs isn't really enough to create this much fuss, or fuel the claims of a disaster for the West and accusations of denying people's children a future...

Just puzzled how people think this is so big, when really, it isn't.

what_traffic

Zzippy wrote: »

How many actual, full-time skilled jobs would this data centre have created? I've heard similar data centres employ 20-30 people full-time, most of whom are maintenance technicians/support staff. Would a short-term construction boom for Athenry really bring that much long-term value to the town? With no guarantees that any of the contractors/sub contractors would be local. 20-30 jobs isn't really enough to create this much fuss, or fuel the claims of a disaster for the West and accusations of denying people's children a future...

Just puzzled how people think this is so big, when really, it isn't.

NO. Nos you use is about right per Hall. Full time jobs at the Data Centre in the company I work for is Security and Cleaning. Electrical and Server maintenance are contractors. Would make far more sense for Athenry to try and get a Cisco type setup like Oranmore have.

Guarantee Athenry is still going to do very well as a town over the next 50 years.
Location. Location. Location.

_Puma_

One thing that is getting lost here is this was given planning approval 2 years ago by An Board Planala. It was held up due to court appeals. Now there is an argument that these appeals could be deemed vexatious(which i believe the high court ruled) but was then appealed to the Supreme courts.

So the changes required, so this wouldn't happen again, logically are to the court appeal process, not the planning system.

Deeming Data Centers "Strategic Infrastructure"(which is a load of codswallop), is essentially circumventing the courts, sets a pretty dangerous precedent by the government. Of course the government have no intention of upsetting the gravy train that is our courts system for their legal friends.

Zzippy wrote: »

How many actual, full-time skilled jobs would this data centre have created? I've heard similar data centres employ 20-30 people full-time, most of whom are maintenance technicians/support staff. Would a short-term construction boom for Athenry really bring that much long-term value to the town? With no guarantees that any of the contractors/sub contractors would be local. 20-30 jobs isn't really enough to create this much fuss, or fuel the claims of a disaster for the West and accusations of denying people's children a future...

Just puzzled how people think this is so big, when really, it isn't.

This was a campas data centre so in effect it was to be up to 8 data centers in the one place, more akin to Microsoft or facebooks data centers than the small co location ones that are all over Dublin.
They aren’t massive employers given their size but they do have a mix of jobs types that mean there could be jobs for locals from the start. A big plant like that would also help the IDA push Athenry as a destination for FDI especially with upgraded infrastructure.

what_traffic wrote: »

Ya but "Strategic Value" for whom?
Some Private Company, YES.
Citizens of Ireland, NO.

Strategic infrastructure is Water, Hospitals, Schools, Roads, Ports, Electricity - stuff that people here actually use on a daily basis.

Whilst I wouldn’t agree with the strategic part we nearly all use a data center everyday

bunderoon wrote: »

So MS buying the windfarm results in one less windfarm to contribute to the over renewable target we agreed with the EU. And in doing so, making us even more exposed to the massive fines and for longer, until another windfarm of similar output is built, comes online and cancels out the one that MS bought.

How does it remove the 37MW of renewables from the grid? It still gets added to the total of renewable produced after all. Once the electrons on the wire it's not like ye can track where they came from anyways. To make it 'private' in the way you are thinking it would require the data center to be built right beside it and there to be no grid connection, in reality MS dc campus is in West Dublin.

What MS has done is actually ensures that GE builds the windfarm as they are guaranteed that it's output will actually be bought at a fixed price per MWh (when it's available for dispatch onto the grid), and won't suffer from the vagaries of dispatch pricing on the Grid etc. MS are happy, GE are happy as they got covered Capex/Opex costs and the % of renewables on grid goes up.

Of course the thing people are forgetting is the millions in foregone tax. The whole point of these data centers is so that Apple could move most of it's online services (eg. iTunes, their Movie streaming, iCloud) into Ireland. Unlike for example the messing they were doing where a Macbook sold in Paris was booked as a sale in Cork (and thus no corporation tax paid in France). Any transactions for example iCloud in comparison would have their data stored on servers in Ireland, there is an actual tangible link to this country.

A good example I can think of was a talk I was at last year where the Swedish Domain registry (iis -- manage .se and .nu) talked about fact that they were moving their entire online system to Amazon (AWS). Their entire registration operation/e-commerce system would thus no longer run in servers sitting in datacenters in Sweden but would instead run on AWS instance (sitting on virtual machines eg. virtual servers) in Dublin. Every dime of profit that Amazon would make from the Swedes would thus rightly fall under Irish tax because actual system would be running in Dublin. (they only planned on keeping their DNSSEC infrastructure in-house in Stockholm).

Greaney

This is where we are on renewable s according to The Times, who could be wrong... or right...
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/ireland-second-worst-in-eu-on-climate-change-action-1.3533954