Australia’s new data centres must be majority renewable powered, says minister

By Peter Hobson and Helen Clark

CANBERRA/PERTH, Aug 5 (Reuters) – Australia’s energy minister Chris Bowen said on Wednesday that plans by the Northern Territory to use its large-scale shale gas resources to power data centres would run counter to proposed national standards, casting doubt over the Territory’s ambition to attract multi-billion dollar tech investments.

Recent proposed policy from Canberra has mandated data centres must build new renewable sources of power rather than pulling electricity from the grid. Both Queensland and the Northern Territory have backed gas-fired power for data centres.

“If a data centre (is) proposed to only use gas, it will not meet the minimum national standards, and it won’t be allowed to register,” Bowen said in response to a Reuters question.

Canberra’s new rules envisage centres being issued with renewable energy certificates. 

He was speaking after a National Press Club address in which he announced a new rooftop solar scheme.

The Northern Territory last month awarded 185 hectares (457 acres) of land near the capital Darwin to Beetaloo Digital to develop a 2-gigawatt data centre, which its parent company Beetaloo Energy plans to support with power from shale gas resourcesit is developing in the Beetaloo sub-Basin. It estimated generating 1 gigawatt of power would require 200 terajoules of gas per day.

By comparison, Shell’s development of coal seam gas resources in Queensland announced on Wednesday was expected to produce 84 TJ of gas a day.

“It has the potential to complement the Darwin Energy Hub’s planned large-scale solar generation and battery storage by providing firm generation capacity,” a Beetaloo spokesperson said but declined to comment directly on what Bowen said. He did not give guidance on the planned proportion of gas to renewable energy used. 

Beetaloo has said its data centre could attract up to A$40 billion ($28.17 billion) in private investment. 

Reports from the Climate Change Authority already suggest Australia may not meet its 2035 target of a 62% to 70% reduction in carbon emissions over 2005 levels, without factoring in large new projects.

Bowen said gas would be allowed to play a role in “firming” or backing up more intermittent renewable energy supply, but gas power should remain mostly dormant.

“I think that’s pretty sensible.” 

($1 = 1.4198 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Peter Hobson in Canberra and Helen Clark in Perth;Editing by Tomasz Janowski)