Amazon abandons plans to build Irish plant due to power woes – report

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has abandoned plans to build an industrial facility in Dublin after it could not secure power supply for the €300M project, The Irish Times reported.

The proposed plant would have employed about 500 people. The facility was to be set up at Ballycoolin in northwest Dublin, near the Co Meath border, where Amazon already has a large base, the report added.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.

Amazon’s cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services, or AWS, wanted the site for making high-tech server racks, a form of shelving used in data centers that drive AI technology, but now it will not go ahead because of constraints in power networks in the area, the report noted.

However, failure to provide Amazon with electricity surprised people with knowledge of the plan because prospective power demand from the proposed facility, which was not a data center, was considered relatively modest, the report added.

Amazon stopped the AWS investment when ESB Networks noted that there was no scope to provide an electricity connection within the company’s timeframe due to constraints in power networks in that area, according to the report.

“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,” said Amazon to the news outlet.