Apple Athenry: Apple seeks planning permission extension for Athenry data center

Apple has applied to Galway County Council to extend its planning permission on its site in Athenry, Ireland. Apple plans to build a 363,800 square feet data center on the site by the end of the extension period. The data center will be a single-story building with a maintenance building, a logistics and admin building, and two fiber huts. Not only that, but it will also have a 20kV substation and 18 external standby generators.

Apple initially bought the land it wants to build the data center on in 2014 for $15 million. It also had its application to build a data center approved by the Galway County Council in 2017. However, there have been appeals challenging the approval in the commercial courts and in front of the Irish planning board. In the course of this, Apple decided to put the land for sale in 2019, but it was unable to get a buyer for it.

Apple has now reignited its plans for building the data center. It sent a request to the Council requesting a planning extension for the site as the original planning permission will expire in September 2021.