New data centres rolling out across the country will derail the country’s switch to renewable energy, a new report says.
And Greenpeace wants a national moratorium on centre approvals until safeguards can be put in place.
The report from Greenpeace Australia Pacific and independent expert Ketan Joshi explains how the rollout of data centres in Australia can entrench gas use and turbocharge climate pollution.The report, Energy Vampires: the AI data centres draining Australia, tracks data centre growth in Australia which is set to follow the US path and looks at links between the centre lobby and gas industry.Joe Rafalowicz is Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific. He says: “Australia is completely unprepared for the magnitude of impacts of the AI-driven data centre frenzy.“Centres are being rolled out at a feverish pace with some of the largest planned for Australia consuming as much energy as Adelaide,” he says.
DATA CENTRES A WORRY
“Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on new centre approvals and construction until we have clearly defined, enforceable regulations and standards in place to govern this industry.
“Australia is not a playground for big tech corporations.”
Report author, Joshi says: that “centre demand projections keep jabbing upwards” with every revision with emissions projections worsening.
“Everywhere in the world facing this frenzy sees the same trend.
“Data centre moratoria have bipartisan support in countries around the world as the only path to reintroducing careful, considered governance of data centre growth,” he says.
Rafalowicz calls a recent federal and state energy minister communique as a first step towards regulating the centre industry and managing its impact.
“But we should all be concerned by the extreme lack of scrutiny being applied to the companies leading the centre charge in Australia and their proposals,” he says.
“Without strong, legislated standards, we risk replicating the US pattern, where big tech corporations have carte blanche to drain energy and water, and build new, polluting gas and diesel-powered plants to fuel their operations.
“This has seen mounting community opposition that transcends party politics, something we’re beginning to see here in Australia.”
MASSIVE UTAH DATA CENTRE
Conservative American millionaire Kevin O’Leary wants to build an AI centre in the US state of Utah that will cover more than 16,000 hectares and use about 9 gigawatts of power, more than the state uses. It is expected to run its own gas-power plant and generate heat of 16 gigawatts, estimated by some as the equivalent to 23 atomic bombs, every day. The project is running into strong opposition; see here for more about that project.
“Impatience is not a virtue,” Joshi says of what he calls a “reckless” centre buildout which is “heaping massive new load onto the grid” meaning renewables have to run harder just to stay in the same spot.
“Currently, centres increase coal and gas output and delay shutdowns while plugging polluting gas into centres does the damage directly instead.
“Unless the centre industry builds no new fossil fuels and far more new renewables than new demand, we end up worse off.
“Australia’s gas industry sees a lifeline in an unchecked data frenzy and the feeling seems to be mutual.”
KEY REPORT FINDINGS
- The centres are already failing to cover their demand with additional renewable energy and resisting calls to mandate that they do so.
- Australia's biggest proposed centre, the 1GW Mamre Road campus in Western Sydney, at its peak will generate annual emissions equivalent to 560,000 petrol cars, or all domestic flights within NSW in 2023.
- There are early signs of a centre-fuelled gas boom in Australia, including proposals for new on-site gas as seen in the US.
- Cloud Carrier’s proposed gas-fired centre in NSW would wipe out the state’s entire projected 2028 emissions cuts.
- If only 1 in 4 new centres were powered by new on-site gas, it would result in 2.8x higher total emissions compared to grid power.
EARLIER DATA CENTRE NEWS: $52 billion of centres given NSW approval
