Echelon Data Centres, a recently launched Irish company, has been granted planning permission for a €500 million data centre on Co Wicklow.
Permission was granted for the company’s planned 45,000sq m (485,000 sq ft) facility in Arklow that will have a capacity of up to 100MW. The centre will create 450 construction jobs and 90 positions when operational.
Located beside the M11 in Arklow, it forms part of a substantial investment by the company which recently received permission for another €500 million site in Clondalkin in Dublin.
Echelon’s last month announced its intention to construct and operate the two centres and said it was waiting on planning permission for the Arklow site in Avoca Business Park.
“We’re very pleased to have been granted planning permission for the Arklow site, and we intend to begin developing it immediately,” said Echelon Data Centres chief executive Niall Molloy.
“The capacity available across our first two facilities is the equivalent of 34 per cent of all current operational capacity available in Ireland and about 15 per cent of all capacity in planning and development,” he added.
First tranche
Echelon is owned by London and Dublin-based property company Aldgate Developments. It is focusing on occupiers with large-scale medium and long term requirements.
The two data centres will have a total capacity of more than 180MW, with the first tranche of 40MW of capacity due to be available at the Clondalkin site in the third quarter of 2020.
The company is also planning additional data centres in Northern Ireland, Britain and across Europe. It said it was targeting the development of 500MW of capacity by 2025.
As of the end of the third quarter of 2018, there were 48 data centre facilities in the State.
Article Courtesy of Peter Hamilton (Irish Times) Tuesday, February 19, 2019