Plan for €1bn Westmeath data centre ‘not strategic infrastructure’

An Offaly company's plans for a €1 billion data centre development in Westmeath have been dealt a planning setback after An Bord Pleanála ruled that the project did not constitute a 'strategic infrastructure' development.

The decision means Red Admiral DC, which is part of the Tullamore-based Lumcloon Energy Group, will not be able to bypass the local authority and apply directly to An Bord Pleanála for planning permission.

Instead, its proposal for a 250MW data centre development close to Rochfortbridge, and near the border with North Offaly, must be submitted to Westmeath County Council for planning approval in the first instance.

Red Admiral DC made an application to An Bord Pleanála last December seeking to have the data centre project designated as a strategic infrastructure development.

The company's plan is for an energy-independent data centre, which would source its primary power from "a collocated flexible Decentralised Energy Resource (DER), Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Power System, Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and Solar PV Installation".

The data centre would be located on a 48-hectare site in the townlands of Kiltotan and Collinstown, Oldtown and Farthingstown, county Westmeath. It would include "six storey data halls, each measuring 225m length, 65m width and 22m height".

A pre-application consultation between the developer and An Bord Pleanála took place in February and was attended by five staff members of the planning board, three representatives of Lumcloon Energy, including its director Nigel Reams, and two representatives of Halston Environment and Planning Ltd.

A record of the pre-application consultation meeting, published by An Bord Pleanála, outlined how the developer anticipated lodging the planning application for the project in "mid-2025".

A report by an inspector for An Bord Pleanála, in early May, noted that there were no previous cases to have come before the board which were "directly relevant to such a campus development".

However, the inspector noted that data centres or battery energy storage system (BESS) developments, were "generally not considered" strategic infrastructure.

An Bord Pleanála's decision on the strategic infrastructure development application was finalised in late May.

It said the proposed development "does not meet the threshold" set out in planning legislation for a strategic infrastructure project and that, therefore, "the planning application should be made to Westmeath County Council in the first instance".