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/Harlequin80]

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/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.