New data centre proposals worth nearly $52 billion have been endorsed by the NSW Government.
The 15 projects, worth $51.9 billion, have been conditionally approved by the Investment Delivery Authority (IDA) which has released a draft paper on managing the growing industry.
The government says there are now 90 data centres in NSW as spending on them has grown 65% annually for the last three years; these centres now account for 12% of all commercial building spending.
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey says they are only interested in working with centre operators who are in for the ‘long haul’.
“The scale of investment endorsed through the IDA reflects strong private sector confidence in NSW as a home for this digital infrastructure,” he says.
“At the same time, we recognise this growth must be managed responsibly.”
With power and water supply issues confronting data centres, he points out that the draft paper will be used to build a strategy to cover energy and water use, infrastructure capacity and future uses.
DATA CENTRE CONCERNS
Planning Minister Paul Scully claims that NSW is a global destination of choice for centre operators.
“In the past year alone, NSW approved eight centre projects worth more than $10 billion including the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere,” he says.
“Data centres are important for jobs, data sovereignty and start up creation but we want them to be the best of the best and this consultation paper will help achieve that.”
Industry Minister Anoulack Chanthivong describes the centres as a “cornerstone of the digital economy” which enables the likes of Cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
“Investment in digital infrastructure like data centres is critical to delivering a strong innovation ecosystem, supporting high‑productivity industries and attracting globally competitive investment,” he says.
The government points out that it also approved 14 energy projects worth $34 billion earlier this month.
It says the Authority’s processing of the 15 projects does not include another $40.7 billion worth of data centre and technology proposals which were not considered.
Click here to read the strategy draft paper.
Written feedback is being accepted from today until May 8; click here to submit your feedback or email directly to cg@infrastucture.nsw.gov.au
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