Irish Residents Oppose County Galway Apple Data Centre

Local residents are objecting to Apple’s plans for a proposed data centre in Athenry, Ireland, arguing the facility would negatively impact a nearby primary school, energy use and local bird life, according to the Irish Times.

Apple applied for planning permission for the €850 million data centre situated in County Galway earlier this year.

It wants to build a 500-acre site that includes a single storey data centre building that will be 263,000ft², along with a single-storey “logistics and administration building” which will cover 56,000ft². The site looks to be operational by 2017, creating about 300 jobs.

Planning permission

In February, Apple said it will work with local partners to develop new types of renewable energy to provide power in the future for its facilities.

“We believe that innovation is about leaving the world better than we found it, and that the time for tackling climate change is now,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environmental Initiatives.

When filing for planning permission, Apple said that it would build an ‘outdoor classroom’ for the 227 pupils at the nearby Lisheenskyle primary school.

But the group of residents in Lisheenskyle now argue that the location of Apple’s data centre would be “inadequate”, and generators from the site could cause noise and vibration issues.

Residents are also concerned about the impact the data centre could have on nearby herds of sheep, cows, and ponies.

The residents have submitted the opposition submission to town planning consultants in Limerick. The submission said that the data centre is in the “wrong location and on the wrong site, remote from existing services and facilities and identified centres of population,” according to the Irish Times.

TechWeekEurope has requested comment on the matter from Apple, but has not yet received a response at the time of publishing.

Take our cloud quiz here!