Australia’s data centre rush now rivals the mining boom. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman last week said Australia could become a “data centre capital of the world”.
This would come at an environmental cost. Water use is a common concern. One report estimates AI centres could use billions of litres of water a year.
But what do the numbers say? Based on the value derived per megalitre, data centres look less threatening and more likely to be a highly economically productive use of water.
The bigger problems are energy and location. As a new report suggests, electricity demand from data centres could outstrip clean power from renewables and lead to new gas plants.
Before committing fully, we need granular detail on how much water and energy these centres use.
