Echelon Data Centres has received planning permission to build a 100MW hyperscale campus in County Wicklow, Ireland.

The European data center developer's project was originally given planning permission in February this year, but faced an appeal. That appeal has now been dismissed by An Bord Pleanála.

Green light

The appeal against Echelon’s campus was filed by a group of people including Brian McDonagh, CEO of Ecologic Data Centres Limited. McDonagh also appealed against Apple’s planned €850m (US$1bn) data center campus in Athenry, County Galway, Ireland.

McDonagh’s appeal against Echelon’s campus claimed that the planning permission given to the company in February “May not have taken steps to mitigate the greenhouse gas effects of such a development”. This appeal was dismissed on Thursday and the project can now get underway.

The first phase of the 484,000 square foot campus is expected to cost around €500 million ($560m) and will come online with 100MW of capacity in the third quarter of 2021.

Echelon is currently constructing its first Irish facility in Clondalkin, near Dublin. Once fully built out the site will offer 477,000 sq ft of data center space, 84MW of capacity and the potential for an on-site power station. The first phase of the Clondalkin data center will deliver 40MW of capacity and is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2020.

In total Echelon has secured €1 billion ($1.15bn) to fund these two hyperscale campuses - the company has not disclosed the source of its funding.

Echelon was established in 2017 to build hyperscale data centers across Europe, the company focuses on wholesale operations as well as offering fully customized facilities and powered shells. Echelon is a subsidiary of commercial property developer Aldgate Developments, who build office buildings in London and Dublin.