By 2030, data centres are forecast to use six percent of Australia's electricity - equivalent to all the homes in Victoria. Queensland and the Northern Territory are the only governments refusing to make them build the renewable power needed to cover it.
What happened: Australia's energy ministers met last week to decide whether data centres should be required to build the renewable power they use, rather than draw on the same grid as everyone else.
Every state and territory backed the plan except two, signs that a showdown could be brewing between Queensland, the Northern Territory and Canberra.
The plan would stop data centres from competing with households and businesses for electricity being built to replace retiring coal-fired power plants.
📈 The numbers: The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) predicts data centres will use around 10 percent of Australia's electricity by 2050, up from about about 2 percent today.
🎤Big talk: Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen told the National Press Club the Federal Government would use "all the powers available," including its own legislation, to enforce the standard nationally "even if some states have different ideas."
🫸Missing out: Queensland has struggled to attract data centre investment compared to NSW and Victoria, where most of the country's 162 operational data centres are based.
UNSW energy researcher Dylan McConnell told the North Shore Lorikeet’s Huw Bradshaw, it’s more efficient to build data centres close to major business hubs like Sydney and Melbourne due to latency, the time it takes data to travel across a network.
💰Attracting investment: In July, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said the government’s energy agnostic approach made him confident the Sunshine State would get a “level of investment in data centres.”
🗣️“Only one state believes that the energy source for [data centres] should come from wherever it is best placed, not exclusively from one source of energy,” said Crisafulli.
When asked why the Sunshine State had rejected the plan to make data centres pay for their renewable energy, Queensland Energy Minister David Janetzki told the National Account:
🗣️ "Queensland will always support proposals that deliver affordable, reliable and sustainable power, we will not support underdeveloped ideas that hand increased power to Canberra at the expense of Queenslanders."
📝 Creating risk? Since winning government in 2024, Queensland's LNP has repealed the state's renewable energy targets and extended the life of coal plants.
In his Press Club speech, Bowen accused the Queensland Government of creating "sovereign risk" by withdrawing support for previously approved wind farms, calling the decision "not in the interests of Queenslanders or Australians".
⛽ The territory: Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Mining and Energy Gerard Maley said the Commonwealth's proposal is "designed for the east coast" and doesn't reflect the Territory's "unique circumstances and opportunities."
The Northern Territory is backing a $40 billion data centre development near Darwin, expected to run primarily on gas piped from the Beetaloo Basin rather than renewables.