IN Brief:
- Echelon’s DUB20 campus in Arklow is being developed as Ireland’s first Green Energy Park.
- The site combines offshore wind access, onsite solar PV, battery storage, and grid-supporting energy centres.
- The project gives Ireland an early live example of LEAP’s co-location model for large energy users and renewable infrastructure.
Echelon Data Centres is developing its DUB20 campus in Arklow, Co Wicklow, as Ireland’s first Green Energy Park, bringing together a large data centre load with renewable generation, storage, and grid-supporting infrastructure on one site.
The project is aligned with the Irish Government’s Large Energy User Action Plan, published in January 2026, which set out a plan-led approach to co-locating the most energy-intensive developments with renewable power supply. Under that framework, Green Energy Parks are intended to run primarily on renewables, include storage or dispatchable backup, reduce reliance on the grid, and create wider system benefits.
DUB20 includes a joint 220kV substation being developed with SSE Renewables, giving access to up to 800MW of offshore wind from Arklow Bank Wind Park Phase 2. The site is also planned to include solar PV capable of generating more than 6,000MWh a year, battery energy storage systems, and two onsite energy centres. Echelon said those energy centres will be able to manage the campus’s own energy needs and export power back to the national grid when required.
The company also plans to use hydrotreated vegetable oil for onsite generation in place of conventional fuel, with the aim of cutting associated emissions. Construction is under way at the former Irish Fertilisers Industries site at the Avoca River Business Park, and completion is scheduled for 2028.
The project is the first real-world buildout of the Green Energy Park concept in Ireland, at a point when grid access, large-load demand, and renewable integration are being forced into much tighter alignment. In practical terms, it gives the market an early look at how high-demand digital infrastructure may be developed alongside offshore wind, onsite generation, storage, and export capability rather than as a pure demand connection.
