How Ireland plans to beat the data center backlash

TALLAGHT, Ireland — In a suburban industrial park south of Dublin, a sprawling mass of tubes, vents and steel stretches as far as the eye can see, forming a dense web of gray monoliths that encircle the city. As the EU’s tech capital, where most of the world’s technology giants have their European headquarters, Ireland was ground zero for the backlash against the energy-guzzling data centers needed to power the promised revolution of artificial intelligence. Dublin is now leading an experiment within Europe to force tech firms to invest in renewable energy. As pushback spreads across Europe and data centers prove a hot-button issue for the U.S.