Lawyers for Google Ireland Ltd (GIL) have stated that South Dublin County Council (SDCC) erred in fact and in law in refusing planning permission for the firm's planned new data centre for Grange Castle Business Park in south Dublin.
The four page legal letter by Google Ireland's legal representatives, AL Goodbody LLP, forms part of a comprehensive appeal to An Bord Pleanala against the Council refusal issued last month.
In its decision, the Council cited what it called "the existing insufficient capacity in the electricity network (grid) and the lack of significant on site renewable energy to power the data centre" as reasons for refusal.
Now, AL Goodbody LLP point out that GIL had already secured a grid connection for the data centre extension from Eirgrid in 2021and points out that the Council is not the appropriate body to determine whether or not there is sufficient capacity on the network to accommodate the data centre "and has made a clear error on the facts and circumstances related to the proposed development".
AL Goodbody state that "Eirgrid had already contracted with GIL to provide it with import capacity for the proposed development and therefore has already factored this demand into its capacity/demand forecasts".
GIL is planning that the application is to be the third phase of the Google Ireland data centre campus at Grange Castle Business Park and involves the creation of 800 construction jobs and 50 jobs when operational.
The new 72,400m2 data storage facility data centre involves the construction of eight data halls on a 50 acre greenfield/brownfield site.
In the main 42 page appeal document drawn up by planning consultants ARUP, they state that despite recognition in the south Dublin County Development Plan 2022 - 2028 of the need for data centre development, the Council has refused planning permission to every new data centre application which has been submitted since the commencement of the County Development Plan.
The appeal states that this amounts to four refusals primarily on the same ground - insufficient capacity in the electricity network.
ARUP states that the Council error over its claim that there is insufficient grid capacity to allow the development "goes to the central pillar of SDCC's decision".
ARUP states that it does not appear any consultation was undertaken with Eirgrid by the Council before the refusal was issued.
ARUP states that "this suggests that SDCC reached its decision without access to comprehensive and authoritative information regarding the electricity network’s capacity".
The appeal states that "this approach raises clear concerns about the accuracy and validity of its conclusions and how well informed its decision was".
It also states that the data centre will be GIL's third data centre building and "is needed to meet the growing demand for computing power, arising from increased internet use and adoption of Artificial Intelligence".
The appeal further states that data centres serve "as the backbone of an increasingly digitally connected society" and the foundation of cloud computing services.
The appeal says that it is correct to acknowledge that data centres do consume a large amount of energy.
It adds that "it should also not be overlooked that they contribute to carbon de-intensification in other ways."
These include the wide-spread use of video-conferencing and facilitate remote working capabilities which help to reduce emissions from business travel.
The appeal is due to be decided at the end of January.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
