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The new facility will be co-located with an Echelon 100MW data centre and could smooth the transition to renewable energy.
Two Irish companies have joined forces to explore a new way in which their facilities can be powered more sustainably.
Echelon Data Centres and Biocore Environmental have agreed to co-locate a biogas production facility with a 100MW data centre in Arklow.
Irish-owned data centre operator Echelon currently has six facilities under development in Ireland and the UK with a potential combined capacity of around 500MW, including Echelon Dub20 in Arklow Co Wicklow.
Biocore was founded in 2010 and generates renewable power from biosolids. It specialises in producing methane gas through the anaerobic digestion process, gas which can be used to power combined heat and power generators producing electricity, or which can be processed further and supplied directly to the national gas network.
The biogas production facility built on Echelon’s Arklow site will create a symbiotic relationship between itself and the data centre it’s running beside.
While the heat generated by the data centre can be used to maintain Biocore’s biogas production process, the biogas produced can produce back-up power for the data centre.
Additionally, Biocore’s managing director, Declan Murray, said part of the gas-cleaning process produces carbon dioxide, which can be used as an effective fertiliser for plant products cultivated under cover.
“Biogas production is a virtuous circle – we take organic materials that can, themselves, become environmental pollutants, and transform them into gas either for supply to the gas network, or for use in generating power,” he said.
“The residue from the production process is dried and re-supplied to the farms from which much of our organic feedstock can be sourced. This residue makes an excellent fertiliser – and means that none of the organic material goes to waste.”
‘Landmark initiative’
Niall Molloy, CEO of Echelon Data Centres said since the need for data centres isn’t going anywhere, data centre operators have a responsibility to ensure they are powered sustainably.
“The inconvenient truth is that data centres are huge consumers of power, but equally inconvenient is the fact that without them, we would not be enjoying – relying on – the benefits of 5G, e-commerce, the internet of things, artificial intelligence (machine learning) and virtual reality,” he said.
“Our agreement with Biocore, which would see a renewable biogas facility co-located with a 100MW data centre on our DUB20 site is a landmark initiative, which could assist in providing a renewable back-up power solution for the facility, while also making productive use of organic material and returning value in terms of fertiliser stock for Irish agriculture.”
Last November, Echelon Data Centres signed a deal with SSE Renewables, which will see the development of a 220kV substation in Arklow.
Along with the 100MW data centre at the Dub20 site, this new infrastructure will also facilitate the development of a large-scale offshore windfarm with an export capacity of 520MW.
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