15:57, 9 September, 2019 15:58, 9 September, 2019
Amazon hits G spot
Amazon plans to start building its €1bn data centre in Dublin this week after awarding a construction contract to a local firm.
The Mulhuddart, Dublin facility was given outline planning permission back in 2017, but was initially bogged down by objections from environmental campaigners.
It was eventually given the green light, helped by Amazon’s plan to eventually draw all power for its Irish data centres from a wind farm located in the Republic.
A construction contract has been given to PJ Hegarty & Sons which is Dublin-headquartered. The first phase of the campus will be the biggest with seven further facilities set to follow.
The campus will occupy a 26-acre piece of land owned by the Irish Industrial Development Authority, close to Facebook’s facility at Clonee.
The first phase development will be over 220,000 square feet and will cost over €200m. The plans for seven other buildings will cost a further €700m-plus.
The first development, code-named Project G, was initially expected to break ground at some point in 2017 – before the objections. Amazon expected it to be online 18 months after construction work started. So using the same expectations now, the first data should be stored at Mulhuddart by the middle of 2021 at the latest.
Amazon operates other data centres in the Dublin area at Tallaght and Clonshaugh. Amazon’s plans to build a second €300m data cente in Tallaght were approved after initial objections in September 2018.
Meanwhile, plans for a €35m Irish floating data centre in Limerick’s docklands area, are set to proceed after planning opponents withdrew their objections to the project.
The Limerick Port Users Group had initially objected to the project for fear of being crowded out in the water area, but with those objections withdrawn, the Limerick City and County Council planning permission decision for the data centre is set to stand.
The data centre is being developed by US firm Nautilus Data Technologies.
