AWS Drogheda data center, Co Meath, County Louth

Amazon Web Services runs a 48 megawatt data center at the IDA Business and Technology Park on the Donore Road, just outside Drogheda in County Meath, near the border with County Louth. Amazon has permission to build a second, identical 48 megawatt data center next to it, and Meath County Council approved the first building in February 2020. The first data center has been operating since construction finished in 2021.

The council approved the second building in June 2021, but the heritage group An Taisce appealed, arguing that planning authorities were granting data centers "on a case-by-case basis without adequately addressing the cumulative impacts of energy use." An Bord Pleanala granted permission for the second building in April 2022, finding it would not significantly affect climate or national emissions targets.

At approval, the second building was expected to be finished by June 2026, a date that has now passed with no report of it opening. Each building was expected to bring about 50 jobs, with up to 400 people on site during construction, and the second was to add its own substation and rooftop solar panels.

AWS has told planners that three phases planned for the park would together draw up to 144 megawatts. The most recent report on progress at the second building is from April 2022, and nothing more recent has been published.