Apple's $1 billion data center gets a green signal from Irish High Court

Ireland's High Court on Thursday ruled that a $1 billion (850 million euro) data center planned by Apple in the west of Ireland may proceed, dismissing an environmental challenge made by 3 people. 

Ireland's Data Economy stated that "The construction of the 166,000 sqm data centre is expected to generate up to 300 jobs during the different phases of expansion. 150 technical staff are to be employed once the facility is put to work.

Garry Connolly, Founder and President, Host in Ireland, told Data Economy: "We are delighted that the planning process has had a successful outcome for the Apple Data Hosting Centre in Galway.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar met Apple executives last month and said they had made clear their frustration with the planning and judicial delays and warned the process would color decisions that they might make about future investments.

When Apple announced the Irish data center in 2015, it also announced one for Denmark. That center is expected to begin operations later this year.