Environmental campaigners seeking to block the construction of a 200MW data center campus in County Clare, Ireland, were due in court today seeking a judicial review.
The €1.2 billion ($1.28bn) Ennis Data Centre campus was given the green light in April when An Bord Pleanála, Ireland’s independent planning authority, upheld a decision to grant planning permission for the development despite appeals from campaigners.
At the time, opponents of the development, led by the Clare Green Party, said they would try and stop the data center from being built via a judicial review.
Since then two groups, Friends of the Irish Environment and Futureproof Clare, have banded together with three Ennis residents to seek a judicial review of the decision.
They were due to put their case in the High Court today, Monday June 17, but it is not known when a decision will be reached.
Speaking to the Clare Echo, Sinéad Sheehan of Futureproof Clare, said the data center is planned for “an area of international importance for biodiversity.”
Sheehan said: “The area has a small pond, lots of native trees and a thriving ecosystem. Moreover, the proposed facility could use as much water as a million homes. This can put undue pressure on the water supply to residential homes.
“We don’t believe this development is in the best interests of the people in Clare – it isn’t of economic value to the ordinary citizen, and it makes a mockery of already unattainable emissions targets.”
Developer Art Data Centers originally gained planning permission for the campus in 2022 and claims that, if built, it would utilize spare capacity in the electricity grid and have access to wind and solar farms in Clare through the grid or private connections. It says the campus will create up to 450 permanent jobs, as well as 1,200 construction-related roles during the build process.
First proposed in 2019, the campus will comprise six data halls spread across more than 145 acres (1.3 million sq ft) of land on Tulla Road, outside Ennis. It has been mired in controversy since day one, with environmentalists describing it as a “climate disaster waiting to happen”.
