Planners have given the green light to a high-profile €3 billion data centre complex proposed for Co Kildare in a move the project’s backer expects to be appealed.
Herbata Ltd plans to build a complex of six data centre buildings at a site next to the M7 motorway and business park at Naas, Co Kildare, which recently drew criticism from environmental groups.
The company has said that it will not draw electricity from the national grid and would eventually rely completely on renewables for its energy.
Kildare County Council approved the plan on Thursday, with 77 conditions, many of which govern energy use, according to Gerry Prendergast, Herbata’s chief executive.
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He pledged that the company would ensure the project was built to comply with the terms laid down by planners.
However, Mr Prendergast acknowledged that opponents were likely to appeal Kildare County Council’s decision to An Coimisiún Pleanála.
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He noted that it was mostly environmental groups that had objected to the plan.
Friends of the Earth Ireland, heritage group An Taisce and Friends of the Irish Environment lodged objections recently. Business body Kildare Chamber urged the council to grant permission.
Herbata provided the council with extensive further information on the project in June. The latest objections and support followed that.
Mr Prendergast stressed that the company valued what the environmental groups had to say, but argued that they had not understood the project.
“We are going to be the first to do it in this way,” he said. Mr Prendergast added that the complex would be able to provide standby power to the electricity grid.
Herbata plans to source 50 per cent of its electricity from corporate power purchase agreements with wind and solar farms.
The company hired consultants BOS Energy to negotiate these deals. It has provided the council with draft legal agreements and letters from two likely green electricity suppliers.
It will have an on-site gas-fired power plant to provide the other 50 per cent of its electricity needs which it has designed to be low on fuel consumption and emissions.
Mr Prendergast hopes its fuel mix will be 20 per cent hydrogen, which does not emit carbon dioxide, to begin with, increasing to 100 per cent by 2039. The plant will also be able to burn renewable gas.
The project will cost €3 billion and should take around eight years to complete.
Herbata’s site includes an iron-age roasting pit or fulacht fiadh, which the company has also agreed to protect.
