Free-air cooling almost year-round; evaporative on rare warm days
Basis
Modelled from cooling design — WUE 0.25 L/kWh
Air — what the stacks emit
Nitrogen oxides237t/yr
Sulphur dioxide129t/yr
Fine particulates21.5t PM2.5
Health damages$19.5M/yr
Where it burns
Ireland — EirGrid
Generation mix
Gas 47 · Wind 34 · Coal 3
CO₂e
641 kt/yr — climate, not air quality
Who wanted it
Who asked for it
Microsoft — self-build and Azure customers, including EU data-residency workloads
Who approved it
South Dublin County Council planning; EirGrid connection agreements — new Dublin-area connections are effectively frozen until 2028
What it serves
Azure North Europe — the default European region for much of the world's SaaS
IT capacity
300 MW running of 450 MW announced
Irish data centers passed 21% of national electricity consumption in 2023 and kept climbing — more than all urban households combined. EirGrid's de facto Dublin moratorium is the strongest grid-side brake any country has applied.
Water and air figures are modelled from disclosed capacity, not measured — site-level
error is roughly ±40%. Diesel backup generators are not counted, so on-site figures are floors.
Full method.