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Amazon Web Services hit with fresh planning delay

Amazon Web Services hit with fresh planning delay

Irish Times07-05-2025
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been hit with a fresh planning delay on its plans to construct three new data centres in north Dublin.
An Bord Pleanála has written to AWS subsidiary Universal Developers LLC to clarify the impact of the three planned data centres in light of the publication of the Government's Climate Action Plan 2025. The AWS data centre campus is on a 65 acre landholding at Cruiserath Road, Dublin 15 and has a combined power load of 73MW for
The appeals board told the applicants that it has examined the appeal and is of the opinion that more information is required.
In the letter, the appeals board said that it was seeking the applicant's response to the recently published Government Climate Action Plan 2025 and the Environmental Protection Agency's assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from 2023 to 2050 and whether these reports would have any impact on the company's environmental impact assessment report lodged with its planning permission application.
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The appeals board has also told the applicants that in order to demonstrate that the Transmission System Operator (TSO) is satisfied that there is sufficient capacity in the national grid to serve the development, it is required to provide a copy of the agreement with the TSO that clearly demonstrates that the applicant has agreed a fixed connection with the TSO for the specific data buildings.
The board has given applicants, Universal Developers LLC until May 29th to provide a response.
The letter from the appeals board comes more than 18 months after five third party appeals lodged with An Bord Pleanála in October 2023 contesting Fingal Co Council's decision to grant planning permission for the three new data centre buildings. The five were Friends of the Earth, the Fingal One Future Group, Dr Colin Doyle, John Conway and Louth Environmental Group and Mannix Coyne
Universal Developers LLC first lodged plans for the data centre two-and-a-half years ago in December 2022.
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