Clare County Council has granted planning permission to the new Art Data Centre Campus in Ennis, which is the first one to be approved following publication of the Government’s new data centre policy.

The €450m Ennis data centre has been four years moving through various stages including strategic site assessment, zoning and planning. It will create between 400 to 450 permanent jobs when the data centre campus is fully operational, while up to 1,200 will be employed in construction and 600 jobs in support services.

The Ennis Campus is considered to align well with policies set out in the new Government Policy Statement on the role of data centres in Ireland’s Enterprise Strategy.

Tom McNamara, CEO of Art Data Centre (project developer), said it was great news for this data centre campus and for Clare. He said the project will be a key pillar of the ‘Ennis 2040 Economic Plan’, launched by Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Leo Varadkar in 2021.

“This Ennis project fulfils the Government’s key requirements immediately while state bodies, regulators and the electricity sector work to upgrade infrastructure, connect more renewable energy and ensure security of supply.

“The infrastructure available in the Ennis site will assist Government in national ambitions to deliver ongoing opportunities for the country in the tech industry,” McNamara added.

Construction of the Art Data Centre Campus starts this year and will be phased in over a seven-year year period. The proposed site, adjacent to Ennis, was zoned in 2019 for ‘Data Centres & Power Generating Infrastructure’.

The 200 MW Ennis Project underpins the Government Policy Statement as it has the key infrastructure on the 145 acres including access to Grid, Main Gas Interconnector running through site which facilitates self-generation availability on site, and access to both wind and solar farms in Clare through the Grid or Private Wire.