Summary
- An Coimisiún Pleanála has approved a 72,400 sq m third phase of Google’s Grange Castle campus.
- The decision reverses a 2024 council refusal that cited grid capacity and limited on-site renewable generation.
- Conditions include engagement on power purchase agreements and renewable fuel for backup generators.
Google has secured planning permission for a 72,400 sq m expansion of its Grange Castle data centre campus in south Dublin, reversing a local authority refusal that had centred on electricity-network capacity and the project’s energy strategy.
An Coimisiún Pleanála granted permission with conditions for the expansion of Google Ireland Limited’s operations at Grange Castle Business Park South and Profile Park in Baldonnell. The planning body’s case record describes the proposal as a ten-year permission for a new data storage facility and associated works, with an Environmental Impact Assessment Report submitted as part of the application.
Google had appealed after South Dublin County Council refused the development in August 2024, when planners cited insufficient capacity in the electricity network and the lack of significant on-site renewable generation to power the proposed facility.
The third phase would occupy a 50-acre site and add 72,400 sq m of data centre floor area. Contemporary reporting on the planning decision said the development could create up to 50 operational jobs, alongside hundreds of construction roles.
Power conditions move into the permission
The appeal did not remove energy from the planning question. Instead, elements of the power and backup-generation strategy have moved into the conditions attached to the consent.
Google must provide evidence of engagement around power purchase agreements before development begins, while renewable fuel is required for backup generators. Other conditions cover sustainable transport measures for employees, ecological improvements, and mitigation commitments contained in the project’s environmental assessment.
The distinction is important in a Dublin market where planning permission, a grid connection, and deliverable electrical capacity have increasingly become separate tests. Google argued during the appeal that it had secured a grid connection for the expansion from EirGrid in 2021 and that the local planning authority was not the appropriate body to determine whether the transmission system had enough capacity to serve the development.
An Coimisiún Pleanála ultimately overturned the council’s refusal, but the permission does not itself mean construction will start immediately. The decision can still face a judicial review challenge, while Google must satisfy the conditions governing the development before delivery progresses.
Ireland’s data centre market has become one of Europe’s clearest examples of digital infrastructure colliding with electricity-system constraints. Data centres accounted for almost a quarter of Irish electricity consumption in 2025, according to Central Statistics Office figures cited during the recent public debate, compared with 5% a decade earlier.
The resulting pressure has shifted attention away from the simple question of whether a campus has planning consent towards the sequence of grid access, contracted supply, generation mix, backup systems, and network investment needed to make additional capacity operational.
That pressure is particularly acute around Dublin, where a dense concentration of hyperscale and colocation facilities has developed alongside constraints on new large electricity connections. The Google decision demonstrates that a project can clear the planning process while still carrying explicit conditions around how its power requirement is procured and supported.
The case also lands amid a much wider Irish argument over new data centre development. Earlier this month, an Oireachtas committee heard competing arguments over a data centre moratorium, grid connection priorities, climate targets, and a planning pipeline of hundreds of megawatts.
For Grange Castle, the planning dispute has now moved decisively in Google’s favour. The next infrastructure test is whether the company can translate an approval secured after more than two years of argument into power, procurement, and construction on the ground.
