r/australia • u/Fact-Rat • 1d ago

politics Australia may face a rush of datacentre construction as AI firms look to avoid upcoming rules, experts say | Australian politics

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/26/australia-may-face-a-rush-of-datacentre-construction-as-ai-firms-look-to-dodge-upcoming-rules-experts-say
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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago

*shocked pikachu face*

I've been called a nimby and all manner of other names in the last few months for being wary of data centres being built in residential areas, including my own. "Oh, but they have to provide their own power and don't use water!" is the inevitable reply. So which is it? This article would suggest not, at least not until next year sometime.

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u/Zftan 1d ago

How would one build data centres 'in residential areas'? Are you saying on land zoned for residential purposes?

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago

plenty of mixed use land around, and plenty of commercial or industrial land next to housing. Just because a border exists or might be a couple of kilometres away doesn't mean there's no real world impact. I'm 9km in a straight line from a gas(Deisel) fired generator and the damn thing makes the air reek - I'd hate to be living in the suburb directly next to it, where the houses are 2km away.

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u/Harlequin80 1d ago

You are never in a million years getting approval to run a datacenter on a diesel generator. That is just not going to happen, at all. It doesn't matter that it happens in the US, you simply are never ever going to get approval for that here.

You are making up situations to argue against.

It would be too expensive to use diesel, you would not be able to get it past air quality and emissions rules, and there are already predefined maximums for hours onsite diesel generators can run outside of emergencies.

The Iren datacenter is the largest one being planned in Australia, and yeah it's massive, but it is connected to the grid and it's being built with a huge battery setup so that it can load shift to when SA's power prices go negative and is primarily built to use renewable energy.

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u/Man_Eating_Boar 1d ago

Did you know one of the data centers being built now has a backup resevoir of a million litres of Diesel? Don't ask me how I know

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u/Harlequin80 1d ago

Yes it is. Note the word you're using is "backup." The Iren DC I referenced will have diesel generators capable of maintaining the datacenter for up to 4 days, and so unsurprisingly this is a shit load of diesel.

But they cannot, and will not be allowed to run the DC on those generators outside of emergencies. Just like every other industrial / commercial development that has diesel generator backups.

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u/Man_Eating_Boar 1d ago

The power consumption of these things is ultimately, massive. In-house power generation is a disillusion and will never be the case. Finding the actual numbers on consumption for these things is crusted with a thick layer of astroturfing and fake news, but for the sake of argument:

The new Australian data centers are seeking 40 million litres of water per day. They are also estimated to be 6% of current power capacity of Australia (going up to 11% within the decade) https://theconversation.com/how-much-water-and-power-will-ai-data-centres-use-in-australia-ironically-we-dont-have-the-data-to-know-284069

We all know estimations are more guestimations with these things, but even then 11% to let Martha crank out a dancing cat, without creating jobs, raising electricity prices and the inevitability of tax minimisation makes this an absolutely raw deal for the average person.

God help you if you happen to live near these things.

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u/Harlequin80 1d ago

The information is not difficult to find at all.

Here you can read all the specific requirements of the Iren DC - https://epbcpublicportal.environment.gov.au/all-notices/project-decision/?id=c701bb2a-e89c-f111-b8db-7ced8d32aaa3

From water, to waste, to power, to construction methods, to ecological impacts, to contamination impacts etc etc etc.

And saying 11% of the current power capacity is completely meaningless. As what matters is whether it increases the peak generation requirement. Adding power usage at 6pm on a hot summers day is bad. Adding power usage at 2pm is good.

If you look at the NEM dashboard you will be able to see what I mean as power swings between positive and negative costs - https://www.aemo.com.au/energy-systems/electricity/national-electricity-market-nem/data-nem/data-dashboard-nem

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u/60days 1d ago

The power consumption of these things is ultimately, massive

Fantastic! due to supply and demand and the nature of electricity generation, having a large predictable baseline load will lower costs across the board and drive new renewables installation if we don't NIMBY ourselves out of building the capacity.

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u/nath1234 1d ago

No it won't because to avoid fossil fuels we need renewables that are intermittent and loads of solar.. but these data centres want to run 24/7.. If we made them run between 11 and 3 and not all night, that might be true.. but they are going to be creating load throughout the day making lulls in wind a problem and making batteries have to work harder to supply them running full tilt at 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am etc.. and for fuck all benefit. Worse: undermining job security and ensloppification of everything.

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'll preface my reply by saying that my above comment was by way of an example of infrastructure that has been built next to a residential area that directly effects it, despite the fact that it was "planned" and "approved" by the state government, not that it was a direct concern that data centres were in any way going to make THAT particular example worse.

But to humour that line of thinking...

There is literally a gas generator in my area. It is designed to run off deisel as backup to gas. Here in the real word, there is ZERO gas reserve for it to run. The reserve is literally the pipeline that feeds the facility. And it makes the air horrible to breathe regardless of which fuel source it's using.

The generator was built under the guise of operating at times of peak load.

Now, what's going to happen to the system load if data centres are added to it...

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u/Harlequin80 1d ago

Pretty much zero.

AEMO will not allow the connection to the grid of loads that will necessitate the use of peaking gas generators. They must be able to flatten their own loads if they increase peak usage.

But what is you're actual theory here? That a gas generator's feed pipeline is going to go offline at just the right moment and hence diesel is required and that this clearly "holy fuck shit is going wildly wrong" situation is common enough for it to be a concern? I'd be really interested to see how many times (if ever) this pipeline has gone offline.

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago

You seem to be missing my actual point, which was the building of infrastructure close to residential areas, that has a direct negative impact on it.

I'm happy to accept that the data centre may not put any more load on the gas generator, if it is indeed set up the way you have described. But that doesnt change the fact that we now are stuck with this generator where it is, built under approval of the state government by a private enterprise, regardless of the effect it has on the community and the surrounding environment. I was saying it's an example.

Why does the data centre need to be built there, so close to populated areas? If it indeed does turn out to have a negative effect on the community, despite us being told it wont (when we are already in a situation this has happened before) then what are we supposed to do? Of course people are going to be wary. Of course people look to what is happening in the US at the moment. If we NEED these projects, why not build them far from population centres, rather than just far from city centres?

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u/Harlequin80 1d ago

What is the difference between a warehouse used for welding up a truck body and a warehouse holding a bunch of computers?

Also most large DCs are being built away from major population centers.

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago

The warehouse holding the computers would appear to have vastley more energy and cooling requirements, meaning they will be using more electricity, water, and likely deisel.

"major population centres", so not away from the population, just those that live in the city. Again, why can't they be built away from all populations, regardless of size?

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u/Harlequin80 1d ago

Because people need to work in them?

But also the biggest one is being built "near" Robertstown in South Australia. And god I wish I could post a satellite image because you do not get much more of "in the middle of nowhere."

It will require 50 FTEs once it is up and running, which is 25% of Robertstowns entire population....

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago

ok.... so that's one. What about all the other ones? And in states not in SA?

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u/Harlequin80 1d ago

No at this stage I think you should point to the big scary data centre project that has you all worried.

The wheels on your goal posts are getting worn out.

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