Fact check · claim about Irish data centres
false (for diesel); the gas story is real"Their diesel generators run all the time."
Verdict: false (for diesel); the gas story is real. Backup diesel fleets ran the equivalent of ~1-6 full-load hours a year in EPA reports, against 72-200 permitted, and on-site fuel was 0.3% of reporting sites' energy in 2025 (StackPath estimate, Oct 2026).
Checked against data built 10 October 2026 · how we check claims · corrections
The full explanation
Backup diesel fleets ran the equivalent of ~1-6 full-load hours a year in EPA reports, against 72-200 permitted, and on-site fuel was 0.3% of reporting sites' energy in 2025. The real on-site issue is gas: Equinix ran gas turbines as its main power for most of 2024, and islanded gas-powered sites have been licensed.
Sources
| Figure | Value | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| How long licensed backup diesel fleets actually ran, from fuel use in 2023-25 AERs, vs 72-200 h/yr permitted. | 0: 1 · 1: 6 | Our epa_generation pipeline (EPA LEAP AERs) | 2026-10-03 |
Also: data/raw/epa_generation/extracted.json