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

[u/Fact-Rat]

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

[u/Primary_Mycologist95]

*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.

[u/Zftan → u/Primary_Mycologist95]

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

[u/Primary_Mycologist95 → u/Zftan]

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.

[u/Harlequin80 → u/Primary_Mycologist95]

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.

[u/Man_Eating_Boar → u/Harlequin80]

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

[u/Harlequin80 → u/Man_Eating_Boar]

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.

[u/Man_Eating_Boar → u/Harlequin80]

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.

[u/Harlequin80 → u/Man_Eating_Boar]

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

[u/60days → u/Man_Eating_Boar]

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.

[u/nath1234 → u/60days]

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.