SSE Renewables and Irish-owned data centre owner and operator, Echelon Data Centres have announced an agreement to develop a joint 220kV substation at the Avoca River Business Park, Arklow, Ireland.
The new infrastructure will facilitate the development of Ireland’s first large-scale offshore wind farm, off the coast of Co. Wicklow with an export capacity of 520MW, and Echelon’s DUB20 (Arklow) 100MW data centre.
The substation development is expected to require an investment of around € 50 million to deliver. Upon completion, the proposed offshore wind farm and data centre will both directly connect to the Irish national grid via the new shared substation. The 220kV substation would be developed and constructed on behalf of both developers by SSE Renewables. The development of the substation for joint use will be subject to SSE Renewables securing planning permission via a future planning application. SSE Renewables is actively developing Phase 2 of Arklow Bank Wind Park which will be located in a lease area situated six to 13km off Ireland’s Co. Wicklow coastline, to the east of Arklow. Echelon Data Centres is to construct a 45,000sq m data centre site at the Avoca River Business Park in Arklow, with a capacity of up to 100MW.
