Amazon. Image: Eric Broder Van Dyke/Shutterstock
Similar to the Apple ordeal in Galway last year, Amazon’s data centre project in Dublin could face lengthy planning permission delays.
Apple’s plan to build an €850m data centre in Athenry has proved a nightmare to get approval for, with delays at every stage of the application process.
For Amazon, its near-€1bn project in Dublin is of a similar nature, and could face similar delays.
Permission
According to the Irish Independent, an engineer from Galway has argued that permission for the project should not be granted until Amazon specifies precisely how much energy the campus will use.
The person has also suggested that Fingal County Council should not grant permission for the development until an assessment of Ireland’s renewable energy framework is completed.
The plans are for a 223,000 sq ft data centre, close to the biopharma facility built by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
The data centre itself will cost €200m to build, but a further investment of more than €700m will go into creating a data storage campus, with a series of smaller centres.
Dubbed ‘Project G’, construction of the data centre is expected to begin this year and it will take 18 months to complete.
Neighbours
Should it eventually get the go-ahead, the new site in Mulhuddart will neighbour the €200m data centre being built by Facebook in Clonee, Co Meath, as well as the facilities owned by Equinix in the Blanchardstown area.
Any delays, though, could prove costly.
Last August, after considering the objections it received, An Bord Pleanála finally gave Apple the green light for its 24,500 sq m Athenry data centre, which will be the company’s largest such project in Europe.
The project was announced in February 2015 before objections began. Then, following final approval, a subsequent legal challenge saw further delays.
Amazon. Image: Eric Broder Van Dyke/Shutterstock
