Ireland is keeping the door open to nuclear power as a potential answer to the growing energy demand from data centres, even as the government insists its immediate energy strategy will remain firmly focused on renewables, an Irish government official told Euronews.
"There is a need to consider all options (with decarbonising potential) in the long-term," a spokesperson for the Irish Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment said.
Political talks about the future of data centres are heating up in Dublin, the Silicon Valley of Europe. According to the country's Central Statistics Office, data centres consume roughly 21% to 22% of Ireland's total electricity, a figure projected to rise toward 31% by the early 2030s with the massive surge of artificial intelligence models.
Ireland has never produced nuclear power and officially banned domestic nuclear generation by law in 1999, citing an international record of nuclear accidents.
The government maintains that Ireland should prioritise technologies that can deliver quickly, including onshore wind, solar, battery storage and interconnectors, as well as the country’s first offshore wind projects.
