Queensland and the Northern Territory will be allowed to use fossil fuels to power data centres, despite energy minister Chris Bowen vowing the Commonwealth would force all states and territories to adhere to national data centre standards that would require them to be powered by renewables.
Premiers and chief ministers met yesterday in Sydney to reach an agreement on the standards, but instead agreed to undertake further consultation.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese justified the decision saying Queensland and the Northern Territory were in a “different position” to other states.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli pushed back against the Commonwealth’s plan for renewables-backed data centres, saying the fact his stated owned much of its energy infrastructure meant it should be able to adopt a “technology-agnostic approach”.
“It shows because we own our assets, both our distribution and our generation, we are able to control a different mixture of energy right across the board, and that enables us to bring on new energy opportunities,” he said.
Queensland is already set to host a massive $31.9 billion data centre in the Western Downs. Singapore-based developer Zerra DC wants to build the Western Downs Digital Park near Dalby, 250km north-west of Brisbane.
The Northern Territory also opposed the Commonwealth’s proposed national standards, having indicated it would use gas to support data centre projects.
The Northern Territory Government has made an exclusive commitment to Beetaloo Digital for more than 185ha of land to develop its plans for a massive data centre and energy generation project at Weddell, approximately 30km from Darwin.
Beetaloo Digital is an offshoot of oil and gas exploration company Beetaloo Energy. The Beetaloo Digital project will involve the construction of up to two hyperscale AI data centre campuses powered by up to 2GW of onsite power generation fuelled by Beetaloo gas.
Related article: Northern Territory commits land to gas-backed data centre
As many as a dozen data centre developers are eyeing the Northern Territory, including Energy North’s Project Ares, a 1GW project proposed for Murranji station in the Barkly region.
