Energy North, developer of the massive Project Ares data centre proposed for the Outback, has revised its target start date after the Northern Territory’s environmental regulator said it needed more time to establish environmental parameters.
Energy North intends to build a massive 1GW hyperscale artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing data centre campus at Murranji Station in the Barkly Region of the Northern Territory—roughly 683km south of Darwin.
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The proposed project was originally given a first power delivery date of June 28, 2028.
Energy North said this date no longer applies given the Northern Territory environment regulator had indicated it needed more time to decide what hurdles the project must clear.
“The June 2028 date in our referral was an indicative schedule at the time of lodgement, and we’re no longer working to it,” said Energy North vice president of project development Daniel Hunter told Reuters.
The regulator said it would defer to advice from the federal government, which is developing policy expectations for data centres and AI infrastructure developers.
Australia’s Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has indicated the policy framework would mandate data centres to be powered by renewable energy sources.
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He insisted there would be no “carve-outs” for jurisdictions such as Queensland and the Northern Territory, who are seeking to allow such facilities to be powered by gas.
