A Microsoft executive has said that a lack of power access in Ireland is leading the company to refocus its data center investment towards the Nordics.

As reported by Bisnow, Microsoft VP of lease and land global, Val Walsh, said that Ireland had lost its early mover advantage in the sector due to chronic grid issues, which have led to data center development in the country being stifled.

“The people who own the grids haven’t been able to keep up,” Walsh told attendees at Bisnow Data Centre Investment Conference and Expo (DICE): Ireland. “Power. We look at power before anything else,” she said. “European regulations and planning are very slow, and things take 18 months longer than anywhere else.”

Data centers in Ireland currently consume an outsized percentage of its electricity, accounting for 21 percent of total metered electricity in 2023. As a result, the country’s grid operator EirGrid enacted a de facto moratorium on new data center builds in Dublin, which is expected to last until at least 2028.

Due to this, data center operators are increasingly looking towards other European countries as alternative options for their new facilities. Walsh pinpointed the Nordics as a prime location, due to the availability of hydroelectric power and because the country authorities had a positive view of data center development.

“I would also prefer if not every person could disrupt permitting, but unfortunately, we are where we are [in Ireland],” she said. “We are pretty closed in Dublin and have no new customers, so everything is being diverted to other European countries.”

Walsh noted that private wire agreements, connecting power generation assets directly to data centers, could play a role in kickstarting development. Last month, reports surfaced that the Irish government was preparing legislation to permit private operators to build and operate electricity infrastructure, including between power sources and data centers.

The belief within the government is that the new policy will inhibit greater private investment in new power infrastructure and allow for additional space on the grid to be freed up for other sectors.

The proposed legislation followed reports last year that US hyperscalers, including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, were urging the state to allow them to build their own private power lines to connect directly to renewable projects in the country.

The comments from Walsh reaffirm fears within the Irish sector that the country could potentially miss out on the AI boom if it is unable to deal with its grid constraints.

Microsoft currently operates 17 data centers in Ireland, with the bulk in the Dublin area. It has signed several renewable power contracts to power its Irish operations. In 2022, it was reported that the company had signed 900MW in Power Purchase Agreements, which covered around 28 percent of the entire nation’s renewable energy target for 2030.