Meta: Clonee Campus

Meta's Clonee data center campus sits on about 133 hectares of former farmland in the townlands of Gunnocks, Portan, Loughsallagh and Clonee, County Meath. It lies on the county boundary with Fingal, about 6 km northwest of the M50. Portan Road (L5028) splits the campus into an eastern section, permitted in 2015, and a western section, permitted in 2018. Damastown Industrial Park lies to the east and Clonee village to the south.

Ownership. Meta's Irish subsidiary Runways Information Services Limited owns and operates the campus. Meath County Council granted permission in July 2015 (RA/150605), and An Bord Pleanala upheld it on appeal in October 2015 (PL17.245347). Facebook broke ground in April 2016. The council permitted the two-building western expansion in 2018 (RA/180671). Meta announced that expansion in March 2019 and paused construction for COVID-19 in March 2020. Meta puts its total investment at EUR 1.4 billion.

Power. Two on-site 220 kV air-insulated substations connect the campus to the national grid. ESB Networks owns them and EirGrid operates them. Clonee 220 kV station loops into the Corduff-Woodland No. 1 220 kV line. It was the first 220 kV station in Ireland built by a customer. Bracetown 220 kV station serves the western buildings through two 2.5 km underground 220 kV cables from Clonee station. Each substation has a Meta-owned transformer compound feeding 20 kV distribution. Backup power comes from 90 containerised diesel generators, 18 per building, each rated 8.26 MWth. The 36 western generators carry SCR NOx abatement. Clonee was the first Meta site to switch its generators to HVO. The EPA regulates them under Industrial Emissions Licence P1192-01.

Sustainability. Meta supports three new Irish wind and solar projects totalling 219 MW, including two Vantage RE solar farms in Meath and Wexford. The western buildings use StatePoint Liquid Cooling. The operational buildings hold LEED Gold certification.