Sir, – Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke’s remarks that opponents of data centres are “not in the real world” (News, September 25th) overlook a crucial fact: in the real world, we face a climate crisis. Ireland’s grid is already stretched, and more data centres will only exacerbate this.
The idea that we can endlessly expand data centres without serious environmental consequences is not realism – it’s denial. We must balance economic growth with sustainability. Ignoring the limits of our energy infrastructure and climate commitments is far from pragmatic.
Real progress requires acknowledging our limits, not ignoring them. – Yours, etc,
Dr CIARÁN O’CARROLL,
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North Strand
Dublin 3.
Sir, – Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke seems to be saying that there should be no restrictions on the building of data centres because they are demanded by businesses. However, as he will not doubt be aware, other countries, including the US, are finding that the electricity supply cannot keep up with the demand. Exponential growth is unsustainable and sooner or later demand will exceed supply, however much power we generate; therefore it would would be wise to have a very serious study of where data storage is going and how it can be regulated to remain within the possibilities of supply and other demands on electricity supply. Artificial intelligence (AI) demands ever increasing volumes of “training material”, and as long as the AI companies are prepared to pay for it, the storage demand will remain. A further serious complication being that an AI search uses about 30 times the energy of a standard search. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK DAVEY,
Shankill,
Dublin 18.