The Government has ruled out reducing the number of data centres as new figures show their energy consumption increased by 31% last year.
It comes as EirGrid warned of an amber electricity warning on Monday.
New figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that data centres accounted for 18% of total energy consumption in 2022.
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Electricity use by data centres increased by 31% between 2021 and 2022.
Total metered electricity consumption has increased by 20% between 2015 and 2022.
In the last quarter of last year, data centres used 400% more electricity than they did in the first quarter of 2015.
The percentage of metered electricity consumed by data centres rose from 5% in 2015 to 18% in 2022.
Data centres consume a lot of power both to run their equipment and keep their machines cool.
Speaking at the National Economic Dialogue, Climate Minister Eamon Ryan said that while he would not call for no additional data centres, they must pull their weight on climate issues.
“The data centres are a really important, beneficial sector for our country,” he said.
“We have a huge advantage of having them here in terms of the potential industries that are based here that come with it.
“I think it comes down to every single data centre looking at what flexible systems they have to deliver low carbon electricity or they can use some of the waste heat.
“Could we use some of the waste heat from those data centres to heat the local hospital, local housing?
“There are ways we can do this and we will get it right working with data centres rather than what some of the opposition do, just blaming them, but that doesn't work.”
Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney, meanwhile, said that there is “no technology-based economic growth without data centres”.
He added: “The challenge for us isn't to reduce the number of data centres in Ireland.
“The challenge is to find a way of powering them with sustainable abundant power by capturing the potential of, in particular, offshore wind, which I think you'll see a significant change in investment in the next few years.”
Hours after the CSO figures were published, EirGrid, the State’s electric power transmission operator, issued an “amber alert”.
This warns of the potential for temporary electricity supply issues in the near future.
EirGrid said the warning was issued “”due to low wind and solar and forced outages at a number of generators which has resulted in a reduced capacity to meet demand”.
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