Naas is Kildare's data center battleground. Kildare County Council approved Herbata Ltd's €3 billion campus of six data centers, 180 megawatts in all, beside the M7 business park in August 2025, and the decision is now before An Coimisiún Pleanála, the planning appeals board. An Taisce, Friends of the Earth Ireland and Friends of the Irish Environment appealed, and so did Herbata over some conditions. Nearby at Jigginstown, Microsoft is planning a second campus on land zoned only for data centers, but has not yet applied.
On September 3, 2026, more than 200 people by the Irish Times' count, and over 300 by the Leinster Leader's, packed the Osprey Hotel for a meeting of the new Kildare Data Centre Awareness Campaign; organizers had expected about 80. "We have a very deep understanding of what's happening, and we just don't want them," said resident Liz Denieffe. Naas Mayor Bill Clear had visited a data center in Clondalkin, where people more than 2 kilometers away complain they cannot sleep, and said its whistling "was almost like if you had tinnitus."
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Herbata, owned by Combilift co-founder Robert Moffett, plans gas turbines, gas engines and batteries on site and says half its power will come from renewable contracts. The council attached 77 conditions, including €8.3 million in contributions and proof of an EirGrid connection for the full load before building starts. Elaine McGoff of An Taisce, a Naas resident, told the meeting the campus would in fact draw from the grid and would need water for cooling in summer.
The Microsoft site covers 54.55 hectares and comes within 130 meters of the Primrose Gardens estate, says former councillor Sorcha O'Neill, whose petition to rezone it has almost 400 signatures. In September council official Amy Granville told the Naas Municipal District there was "currently no planning evidence" that the zoning was wrong, and officials said only the full 40-member county council can change it. Clear said he would bring a rezoning motion anyway: "I will do it, but it will not work."
Projects not tied to an area
Sites whose records name no county. Everything else is on the pages listed above.
County Kildare1
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft NaasNaas | Microsoft | Proposed | Not reported |
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