Data Centre carbon emissions and impact on Ireland's energy needs

ESB sold off many of their power stations years ago when deregulation happened.

Eirgrid do the capacity for planning and decide what plants are need and then run the auctions to see what plants they’ll allow sell on the market.

none of that has any bearing weather they are Ireland or not. So poopoos your avoidance statement.

Now to address the dribble you said.

lets take Disney+, Netflix and Prime as an example of things stored in data centres. These are sold with VAT, so there’s tax from the data centre. Then corporation tax

let’s now like at free services. Google do mine your data , they then sell this to target adds, once again there’s VAT and corporation tax.

your original statement Said that they are here for tax avoidance, good to see you retract that silly statement and acknowledge they would get the same tax treatment elsewhere

no im not retracting it at all, again, one of their primary reasons for existing on this planet, it to avoid paying as much taxes as possible, which includes avoid paying taxes here in ireland. its a hell of a business model, receive almost endless amounts of raw material, i.e. data, for virtually nothing, manipulate it, and use it to extract even more wealth, and i suspect in very questionable manners, again, both here in ireland, and all over the rest of the planet. this model clearly isnt working for most!

its clearly obvious, to most people anyway, that our global business model, particularly at the corporate level, is wide scale tax avoidance, globally, hence the recent decision to implement global tax rates harmonisation, these businesses are using many different tools to do so, and data centers are a major part of this. data centers are a part of an enormous global network of networks, in which the main aim is to extract as much data as possible, while paying as little tax as possible on this extraction, taxation is primary based on the 'profits', but not on the actual actions of data extraction, of which is very questionable also, both on moral and ethical grounds. again, this is a global problem, hence the oecd move on taxation.

as both blyth and lonergan explain in their work, we re allowing these businesses to simply extract this data, virtually for free, and they make an astonishing amount of wealth on the back of it, both believing, as i do, we need to not only tax the profits, but the actual act of data extraction, as most countries are now beginning to struggle to provide all citizens with their most critical needs, very evident in housing and health care needs etc etc. the traditional approach of taxation, primarily related to labor and consumption, is now starting to fail, this is now clearly evident in most countries, including ireland.

effectively, many of these businesses, probably most, are now behaving in whats called a rent seeking manner, which just means net wealth extractors, and if we continue in this way, it will more than likely end in serious conflicts and social breakdown, from this rapidly rising wealth inequality from these activities

again, theres extraction, and then theres EXTRACTION! theres a reason why many of these big players are hoarding an astonishing amount of wealth, and growing, this wont end well for all, including for the wealthy, if we continue on this path!

err emm, say wha!

no, once again, tax avoidance bad, because under such conditions, us, the citizens, are the default in the game of taxation, once again, primarily labor and consumption related taxes etc!!!

data centers are a critical part of a modern economy, including ours, without which, ours would simply cease to exist, but we clearly cannot maintain this status quo, as you ll find, most economies, including ours, are starting to experiencing serious issues in regards providing all citizens with their most critical of needs, easily identifiable in property and health care related issues etc, but not exclusively. our approach of allowing the so called market to provide these critical needs, is currently failing, in fact i suspect its actually collapsing, and one of the main causes has been in relation to tax avoidance, hence the move towards tax harmonisation etc.

we clearly have a close affiliation in regards global corporations, and their approach of global tax avoidance, this is in fact one of the reasons why they exist here, and in other countries, but not exclusively, it is also the fact we re a part of global markets, and data centers are a critical component of maintaining this.

yes you are in fact correct in regards climate conditions, grid stability and other points, but again, we have had an openness to accepting the operations of large corporations, including data centers, for the reasons given, including wide scale tax avoidance, and policies that protect that.

yes again you are correct, not all centers mine, some do indeed run critically needed applications, for both the public and private sectors, but data mining has become the new gold, its why theres been an explosion in free to use services, as a significant amount of wealth can be created from their activities, without charging for the use of these services

Eirgrid operate the grid. ESB own it ;)

As far as I understand Irish data centres don't currently have substantial private generators and batteries. Maybe I am wrong. Anyway, these options might be a good way to improve stability but won't be ideal for emissions. It would be greener for them to turn off when the wind dies down.

The trouble with data centres is not data centres per se, but they growth is far faster then growth in grid maintenance and power supply. As my comment shows https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118011478/#Comment_118011478 there are countries who probably would be much cheaper for running. Ireland is not cheap for construction.https://www.turnerandtownsend.com/en/perspectives/data-centre-cost-index-2021/ Most data centres are in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin, for connectivity, not climate.

@Etheral Cereal, I imagine the data centre companies would be more efficient at setting them up as they are specialised in it.