Echelon and SSE in joint intiative

New deal announced for shared grid infrastructure to jointly serve 520MW offshore renewable energy site and 100MW data centre.

Thursday, 19th November 2020 Posted 3 years ago in by Phil Alsop

Welcoming the initiative An Taoiseach Micheál Martin said, “This announcement is a welcome boost for Arklow; it not only provides new job opportunities, it also places Arklow at the heart of the green tech sector. This collaboration between renewable energy and tech will ensure that key decarbonisation targets contained in the Climate Action Plan are met and is a model which could be rolled out in other communities across the country.

“I would like pay tribute to Echelon and SSE Renewables – having identified an opportunity to share infrastructure to promote sustainability, they worked collaboratively to ensure their vision became a reality.”

Niall Molloy, CEO of Echelon Data Centres said: “We’re delighted to be working with SSE Renewables on such a significant initiative – one which enables Ireland’s first large-scale offshore windfarm, contributing greatly to the country’s targets of delivering 1GW of offshore renewable energy by 2025 and 5GW by 2030, and facilitating the creation of 250 jobs locally.

“It is also a model for the future, where data centre facilities are located close to the source of renewable energy, providing a constant demand for the power and working with renewable energy providers to facilitate the development of the necessary infrastructure. The initiative represents meaningful progress on the road to cleanly and sustainably powered data centres.”