Europe switches on first microgrid data center in Dublin

A data center just outside the Irish capital Dublin has become the first data center in Europe to turn to an independent, so-called “islanded” microgrid to keep its servers running.

Europe is looking to cash in on the AI ​​boom while dealing with decades-long power connection delays. European Commission predicts bloc at least he needs 1.2 trillion euros ($1.39 trillion) will be invested by 2040. In some cases, companies cannot wait for bottlenecks to ease and are turning to their own power sources.

The Dublin facility, operated by power supply solutions provider AVK and digital infrastructure developer Pure Data Center Group, could be the continent’s first step towards a privately supported ecosystem.

Microgrids are localized energy systems that can generate, store and distribute power. The systems are already widely used in the United States; The explosion of data centers in very hot regions like Texas and Virginia here shows the increasing need for off-grid energy.

AVK and Pure DC say their Dublin facility is the first data center operated by a live microgrid in Europe.

“As these data centers grow and we see AI workloads and this data become more of a feature in our daily lives, that puts more stress on the grid. So we need to pivot to a different solution,” AVK CEO Ben Pritchard told CNBC.

The systems are not without their difficulties. Regulatory hurdles can slow deployment, and the long-term success of microgrids likely depends on power supplies being both reliable and sustainable.

Ireland is one of two European countries that has imposed a moratorium on new data center applications as energy-intensive facilities put pressure on the country’s grid. Facilities were surprisingly exhausted 22% of the small country’s power In 2024.

Ireland’s national network operator warned In late February it was said that meeting power demand could be “challenging” as consumers use electricity in new ways. He identified data centers as the key driver of this demand growth.

But late last year Irish authorities eased the moratorium as they saw the AI ​​boom creating a U-turn on their economic potential.

All new data centers connected to the grid must now provide dispatchable power (electricity that can be turned on and off depending on the needs of the national grid) or have energy storage capacity. They are also required to source at least 80% of annual demand from renewable electricity produced in Ireland, according to rules set by the country’s regulator, the CRU.

“The alternative in Ireland was to wait, literally wait for an unknown time to be able to get a grid connection, but today you still can’t get a grid connection. So creating a microgrid allowed us to move our project forward,” Pure DC President Dawn Childs told CNBC.

Childs, who was appointed a Dame in England for her engineering services, added that the project was designed as both an immediate and long-term solution. “If we have to remain an island solution we can certainly do that… But we would have the desire to establish a grid connection to achieve the most sustainable solution and restore service to the grid in Dublin, which is the most constrained part of Ireland.”

The total capacity of the Dublin data center, which can run both cloud and AI workloads, is approximately 110 megawatts. The total projected investment in the site is approximately 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion).

The plant is currently powered by natural gas engines with the ability to switch to Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO). The site also experimented with biomethane as a power source.

If the Dublin data center eventually secures a grid connection, it could offer dispatchable power and provide up to 20 MW of battery storage, Childs said.

The global microgrid market is worth approximately $29 billion in 2025, while the European market is expected to grow approximately 10% annually due to aging infrastructure. predictions From Global Market Insights. While investments are being made to modernize the national grid, companies are expected to turn to increasingly urgent solutions regarding energy.

Microgrids are already being used to provide power industrial sites And plants In Europe, however, there aren’t many examples of powering data centers compared to the US

Besides AVK, companies such as ABB And Siemens They are racing to develop technology Schneider Electric an opening microgrid testing laboratory in Massachusetts last year to test the systems in real-world conditions.

Siemens sees “potential opportunities” for implementing microgrids in data center locations and is currently in discussions with several customers, a company spokesperson told CNBC. They said that the issue is especially valid for the US market, but similar discussions are also taking place in Europe.

Siemens is also interested in using microgrids to support electric vehicle charging infrastructure and port decarbonization.

Expected to reach at least a billion-dollar value by 2030, AVK initially focused on backup and reserve power generation before becoming a full power solutions provider.

According to the company’s CEO, discussions and plans for microgrids were ongoing in Europe, but the US market quickly overtook the 27-country bloc. “There’s such a high demand in the U.S. that we’ve seen a slightly faster rollout than we’ve seen in Europe,” Pritchard told CNBC, adding that the company is now facing a new type of investor interested in microgrids specifically, not the data center itself.

“These are infrastructure funds that want to build, own and operate microgrids and power data centers,” Pritchard said. He expects this type of asset class to mature in the next three to five years.

One of the biggest challenges facing the market is how microgrids are deployed sustainably, with much of the discussion around the technology revolving around the use of gas turbines or fuel cells, Diego Diaz Hernandez, a partner at McKinsey, told CNBC.

“Making these entities grid participants are very different questions in theory and practice,” Diaz Hernandez said.

“From a technical point of view, it is very possible to do this and we have seen examples of this in the USA.” [where] Grid operators need 50 or even 100 hours of flexibility all year round to relieve pressure on the grid. “So they’re not asking for too much, but actually having the regulation and policy in place to allow that to happen is a big question.”

In addition to ensuring the power supply is reliable, staying on top of regulations will also be important, Hernandez said. He noted that about 30% of data centers in the U.S. have adopted microgrid or other behind-the-meter solutions such as fuel cells and gas turbines, which are power sources that do not require connection to the main grid. He added that in Europe, this share was only 5-10% 18 months ago, but has since increased to around 20%.

Challenges aside, the burden on data centers to ensure their own power supply is clearly increasing. Last week US President Donald Trump He said data centers “need some PR help” due to concerns about their impact on electricity prices.