Irish data center firm Echelon has broken ground on a new data center campus around Dublin after waiting several years for a connection to the local grid.

However, its hopes to build a solar farm in the county have hit a snag after planning permission was denied by local officials.

Ground breaks in Wicklow

“We’ve begun work on our DUB20 site,” Echelon said on LinkedIn. “First announced at the beginning of 2019, granted a grid connection in 2024, and officially launched by the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) in May 2025, we’re demolishing buildings and removing foundations in the footprints of the data center buildings and the on-site energy center.”

First announced in 2019, the data center will be built on a 100-acre site south of Irish capital Dublin in County Wicklow, within the Kish Business Park.

The 45,000 sqm (484,000 sq ft) DUB20 campus will eventually provide 200MW of IT capacity, with 90MW being made available as part of phase one of the development. The overall campus could total five buildings.

The data center campus will include a 293MW biogas power plant and be connected to a nearby wind farm.

Frustrations for Echelon

Phase one of the data center was due to go live in 2021, but Echelon has been at loggerheads with EirGrid over obtaining the grid connection, amid ongoing power constraints in Ireland and a de facto moratorium on new data centers in the Dublin area.

In January, DCD reported on Echelon’s growing frustration about the amount of time it was taking to secure a grid connection for the site. The company finally managed to secure a grid connection from EirGrid last year.

The company is also hoping to develop a nearby solar farm, but is again facing frustrations.

The Irish Independent reported in July that an application had been filed to develop the site next to DUB20 into a 15.7-hectare solar farm along with two warehouses totaling 3,365 sqm (36,220 sq ft) each. Access to the solar farm would be via the planned DUB30 campus to the south.

The application has been filed by Echelon affiliate Crag Wicklow Ltd for a solar project known as the “Kish DUB30 Solar Farm” in some documents.

“This proposed development will integrate with and support the permitted data center and energy development on adjoining lands, and will be part of the same overall campus,” the submitted documents state.

However, the project has been refused planning permission by Wicklow County Council. The council said the proposals would “contravene the zoning objectives for this area, and the identified objective of the Arklow & Environs Local Area Plan.”

“The development would be contrary to the Core Strategy and Economic Strategy of the Wicklow County Development Plan 2022-2028 as it would result in the underutilization of employment lands, would not achieve a suitable jobs ratio, and would set a precedent for further inappropriate development at this location,” the county decision said.

Founded in 2016 and launched in 2019, Echelon Data Centres now has six sites in operation and development across Ireland and the UK with a total potential capacity of up to 500MW.

Its sites in Ireland – DUB10 and DUB40 in Dublin’s Clondalkin and Grange Castle, along well DUB20 and another County Wicklow site, DUB30 – will have a combined capacity of around 400MW.

In the UK, it is developing the LCY10 site in London’s Docklands. A second campus is planned in Chesham, Buckinghamshire.

The company recently announced plans to expand into mainland Europe with a campus in Spain.

Echelon is backed by Starwood Capital, which invested $850 million in the company last year.

Echelon reportedly recently sued several companies in the US, accusing power provider MPD Electric Cooperative and commercial real-estate developer Marlboro Development Team of hijacking multi-billion-dollar plans to build data centers in South Carolina.