Echelon Arklow Campus, Arklow

under construction Campus

A 100 MW campus permitted by Wicklow County Council in February 2019 and upheld on appeal. EirGrid's September 2024 connection offer was the first to a large Irish data centre in over three years; construction of the first building began in 2025.

Land use jurisdiction: Wicklow County Council

Measurements on record

Power

Critical IT load

90 MW

source

Permitting path

Approvals on record for 2 of 12 path steps; latest: Connection offer and agreement (2024-09-06).

Ireland's path runs grid-first: under the CRU's Large Energy Users Connection Policy (CRU/25/236, December 2025, replacing the 2021 data centre connection direction), a new connection offer requires dispatchable generation or storage matched to the facility's import capacity and a commitment to source at least 80 percent of annual demand from new Irish renewable generation within six years of energisation. Planning permission sits with the local authority in the first instance (the 2018 provision routing large data centres directly to the national planning body is not yet commenced), with appeals to An Coimisiun Pleanala, and environmental impact assessment where screening requires it. Uisce Eireann water and wastewater connections, building control certificates, and an EPA industrial emissions licence for standby fleets over 50 MW thermal complete the path.

Date	Step	Authority	Instrument	Status
2019-02-19	Planning permission	An Coimisiún Pleanála	Wicklow County Council grant (February 2019); appeal dismissed by An Bord Pleanala Wicklow County Council grant (February 2019); appeal dismissed by An Bord Pleanala	on record
2024-09-06	Connection offer and agreement	EirGrid	EirGrid grid connection offer, Arklow campus EirGrid grid connection offer, Arklow campus	on record
	Site control (title or lease)	Tailte Éireann		not yet requested
	Grid connection application	EirGrid		not yet requested
	Dispatchable generation or storage matched to import capacity applies for new connection applications under the 2025 policy	Commission for Regulation of Utilities		not yet requested
	Renewables matching commitment (80 percent in six years) applies for new connection applications under the 2025 policy	Commission for Regulation of Utilities		not yet requested
	Strategic infrastructure pre-application consultation applies where an associated Seventh Schedule class, such as large scale onsite generation, routes the application to An Coimisiun Pleanala; the data centre specific route is not yet commenced	An Coimisiún Pleanála		not yet requested
	Environmental impact assessment applies where screening determines significant effects are likely	Wicklow County Council		not yet requested
	Uisce Eireann wastewater connection	Uisce Éireann		not yet requested
	Uisce Eireann water connection agreement	Uisce Éireann		not yet requested
	Building control (commencement notice; fire safety and disability access certificates)	Wicklow County Council		not yet requested
	EPA industrial emissions licence applies where standby generation crosses licensing thresholds	Environmental Protection Agency	Crag Arklow Limited IE licence application Crag Arklow Limited IE licence application	pending
	Go-live			not yet live

Steps without a record are shown as not yet requested or not on record: absence of a record here is a records gap, not a finding about the facility. An authority shown for an empty step is the body that would issue it. Some authorities are shown before any record exists, from mapped utility service areas or, for sewer service, from municipal limits; these carry a marker naming the basis.

Site control comes first in every path: a proponent must hold a deed, lease, or purchase option on every parcel of the site before it can apply. Parcel and ownership records have not yet been pulled for this facility.

About this path and the law behind each step: the law on record for this jurisdiction

Location and sources

Arklow, Wicklow County Council, Ireland

Sources: RTE: Permission granted for Arklow data centre · Irish Times: Echelon secures grid connection for Wicklow data centre · EPA: Crag Arklow Limited licence application

Every record links to its source: public records, press reporting, and openly licensed datasets including Epoch AI, Wikidata, and US EPA. Full sourcing and per-source licensing: methodology · sources.