On March 11, 2026, Pure Data Centres and power solutions provider AVK switched on Europe's first data center operated entirely by its own microgrid, bypassing Ireland's strained national electricity network altogether. The facility, located at Orion Business Park in west Dublin, runs on three interconnected energy centers capable of generating up to 110 megawatts, enough to power roughly 100,000 homes. The €1 billion campus spans more than 31,000 square meters across three buildings. The project exists because the grid cannot accommodate it.
EirGrid, Ireland's transmission system operator, has effectively blocked new data center connections in the Greater Dublin Area until at least 2028 due to insufficient capacity. Data centers already consume 21 percent of Ireland's total metered electricity, a figure projected to reach 30 percent by 2030.
"The biggest barrier to deploying AI infrastructure in Europe today isn't technology," Gary Wojtaszek, Pure DC's executive chairman and interim CEO, said. "It's power." He said the microgrid is the first of its kind in Europe, a self-generated facility that relies entirely on its own power generation and fuel supply.
The facility currently runs on natural gas combustion engines, with the infrastructure designed to transition to biomethane and hydrotreated vegetable oil. Dublin's climate allows it to operate without conventional chillers, relying instead on air-side economization for cooling. Pure DC reports a power usage effectiveness rating of 1.2. The campus can also route surplus heat into local district heating networks.
Ireland lifted its moratorium on new data center grid connections in December 2025, but the new rules imposed by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities are stringent. Grid-connected facilities must now install on-site generation meeting their full electricity demand, supply at least 80 percent of annual energy from on-site renewables or batteries, and feed generated power back into the wholesale market.
Pure DC's microgrid sidesteps those requirements entirely.
The environmental response was immediate. Friends of the Earth Ireland CEO Deirdre Duffy said any new gas-dependent facility represents a threat to Ireland's energy security and climate commitments. Environmental groups have sought a High Court review of government policy allowing fossil-fuel generation for data centers, and the organization's research found that the additional electricity consumed by data center expansion over the past six years equals the total growth in Irish renewable energy over the same period.
The Dublin campus sits within a broader global competition to power AI infrastructure. Microsoft signed a 20-year agreement to restart Three Mile Island's nuclear facility for 835 megawatts. Amazon has committed more than $20 billion to convert the Susquehanna facility into an AI campus and is financing small modular reactor development through X-energy. Those nuclear projects remain years from operation; Pure DC's gas-fired microgrid is producing power now.
Global data center electricity consumption reached 460 terawatt-hours in 2024 and is projected to hit 1,300 terawatt-hours by 2035. Ireland, a small country hosting the European headquarters of most major technology firms, is absorbing a disproportionate share of that load.
