From left: Eoin Doherty, Microsoft; Lavinia Morris, Microsoft; Jim Dollard, ESB; Paul Lennon, ESB. Image: Naoise Culhane
ESB will supply Microsoft with up to 250kW of clean energy over an eight-week period.
A building on Microsoft’s Dublin data centre campus will be powered by green hydrogen from the ESB in a European first for the tech giant.
The ESB-Microsoft pilot project, set to run for eight weeks, will supply the Grange Castle data centre’s power control and administration building with up to 250kW of clean energy over the period.
The pilot project is part of ESB’s plan to showcase the versatility of hydrogen fuel technology in different power applications.
“ESB believes green hydrogen will play an important role in the net-zero energy system of the future,” said Jim Dollard, ESB executive director for Generation and Trading.
Green hydrogen is produced when renewable electricity is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in a process called electrolysis. This process releases only one byproduct – pure water.
ESB’s zero-emission hydrogen fuel cells convert stored green hydrogen into electricity and do not produce any carbon emissions or harmful pollutants such as particulate matter, sulphur dioxide or nitrogen oxides, the partnership claims.
“The green hydrogen project we’re launching with ESB is a pioneering first for Microsoft in Europe,” said Eoin Doherty, VP and EMEA regional leader for Microsoft cloud operations and innovation. “If scaled successfully, it could provide new ways of advancing sustainability in our sector and beyond.”
Data centres consume huge amounts of energy. CSO data published earlier this year showed that data centres consumed 21pc of Ireland’s metered electricity in 2023, a jump from 18pc in 2022 and a significant jump from the 5pc share it held in 2015. And by 2030 they could consume almost a third of the total electricity.
Last month, Google was denied permission to build a data centre in Grange Castle Business Park – home to many data centres alongside Microsoft. South Dublin County Council stated that it was due to “the existing insufficient capacity in the electricity network (grid) and the lack of significant on-site renewable energy to power the data centre”.
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