Amazon has abandoned plans for a plant in north Dublin because it couldn't get an electricity connection.
The tech company's cloud computing unit, AWS, wanted to build the manufacturing facility at Ballycoolin near the Meath border. It was due to make high-tech server racks for data centres.
The €300 million project would have created more than 500 jobs but the plans have been scrapped because Amazon was unable to get a connection to a power supply. It had wanted it in place in 2027.
Earlier this year, EirGrid warned of serious pressure on the national grid as electricity demand increases. The shortage has prompted restrictions on new data centres, however this facility would have been involved in manufacturing rather than data storage.
A statement from an Amazon spokesperson says:
"AWS was disappointed that it did not prove possible to proceed with this project. If conditions allow, we do hope to be able to make other high-tech investments elsewhere in Ireland.
Since 2004, Amazon has made direct investments in our Ireland operations of more than €22 billion, including a fulfilment centre in Dublin’s Baldonnell Business Park, data centres, and two corporate offices in Cork and Dublin."
Image: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie
