A new data centre in West Dublin, Ireland, has become Europe’s first facility powered by a privately operated microgrid, meaning it runs on its own on-site power system rather than the national electricity grid.

Power solutions company AVK developed the facility for Pure Data Centres Group, which operates the data centre.

The microgrid currently runs on natural gas. However, it has been designed to switch to alternative fuels such as biomethane and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) in the future.

The project represents an investment of about $1.2 billion. It is planned to deliver 110 megawatts of data centre capacity. That amount is enough to power roughly 100,000 homes.

Microgrid-powered data centres already exist in the United States, but this is the first such system deployed in Europe.

The development comes as data centres consume rising amounts of electricity, putting pressure on national power grids. In Ireland, data centres accounted for around 22% of electricity consumption in 2024, up from 5% in 2015.

Projections suggest that data centres could account for nearly one-third of Ireland’s electricity demand by 2030. This is expected as AI workloads and digital services continue to expand.

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