[iorrus]

In Ireland the national grid is under strain due to electricity usage from data centres, so much so that there is discussion to deny permission for new ones. I very much doubt that the electricity costs are negligible, it’s also one of the reason data centres are in Ireland as due to the relatively mild climate it reduces hearing/cooling costs.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/data-centres-could-...

[easygenes]

Will be interesting to see where datacenters wind up in Europe this next decade. My money is on Norway.

Norway seems poised to build out significantly. They're actively inviting datacenters [1]. They also seem to have lower electric costs for large businesses [2] vs Ireland [3]. FAANG are already populating the Nordics too [4].

  1: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/norway-wants-data-centers-to-locate-there-and-be-more-sustainable-too/
  2: https://www.statista.com/statistics/595859/electricity-industry-price-norway/
  3: https://www.statista.com/statistics/595806/electricity-industry-price-ireland/
  4: https://www.zdnet.com/pictures/the-nordic-datacenter-boom/

[Symbiote]

Isn't more of the reason political (taxes etc)?

The same climate benefits apply to northern England and Scotland, but Great Britain's grid's capacity has around 10 times the capacity.

(Ireland's grid's peak demand was 6.8GW, Great Britain's 63GW.)

Although the same argument then applies for siting the datacentres in continental Europe, where the grid is around 667GW. Perhaps this is part of Facebook's reasoning for a second datacentre in Denmark.

(Most of Denmark, including Facebook's existing datacentre, is connected to the continental European grid. The eastern islands are part of the Scandinavian grid.)

[1] https://www.thelocal.dk/20211013/facebook-eyes-second-danish...