US company has option to buy Kildare data centre

A US company has an option to buy a proposed €3 billion data centre if planners approve the project in the face of stiff local opposition, it has emerged.

An Coimisiún Pleanála is weighing appeals against Kildare County Council’s decision last year to grant Herbata Ltd permission to build a data centre close to the M7 in Naas.

US-owned energy business Mission Critical has an option to buy Herbata within six months if planners sanction the project. It has already provided €5 million in finance to the Irish company, it has emerged.

Filings with the US stock market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), show that Mission Critical’s parent, E2 Companies, can, through its subsidiary, acquire Herbata itself, the site and all planning permissions within six months of their grant.

Mission Critical is the Irish subsidiary of E2, which specialises in power management systems. Herbata chief executive Gerry Prendergast maintains that the US group is providing its technology to the data centre developer and says the option does not mean it will necessarily buy the business.

Naas resident and Social Democrats national chairwoman Sorcha O’Neill questioned whether the people of Naas were being asked to accept a development where the long-term owner was not part of the planning process, or what that business was likely to do if it took over.

According to Prendergast, the option exists only to protect E2’s interests in the project. The US company is providing systems that will aid Herbata in managing its electricity intake and output, he said.

Herbata is obliged to get 80 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources, have its own backup generator and supply power to the national grid if required.

The Mission Critical deal dates back to 2024, when it also provided finance to Herbata. Returns to the Republic’s Companies’ Registrar show that Mission Critical is one of Herbata’s creditors.

Prendergast confirmed that Mission Critical had provided €5 million to the data centre developer. E2 chief executive James Richmond is a director of Herbata.

Herbata’s chief said that E2 focuses strictly on energy management systems and is not in the data business. He also dismissed suggestions that E2 provided services to the US military.

While Prendergast argued that E2 was unlikely to buy Herbata, he acknowledged that the Irish company would be unlikely to have the resources to complete the project on its own.

Glenisk co-owner Vincent Cleary on rebuilding the company after it burned to the ground

Listen |

46:34

“Herbata would not be able to fund all of it right up to the end,” he said, adding that it was likely one of the large data centre specialists, known as hyperscalers, would have to step in to help finish the project.

He added that Herbata was not in talks with any such business.

Objector O’Neill argued that along with their impact on climate, fears that foreign-owned data centres could be used for military purposes were not hypothetical.

She is calling for a Government moratorium on data centre development to close gaps in the system.