A company in Singapore is proposing an ambitious idea for Australia’s Northern Territory: an off-grid data centre powered by 3 gigawatts (GW) of solar, 1 GW of gas and a whopping 16 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of battery storage.
Project Ares is proposed for construction on the Murranji Station, which was bought last year for $44 million by the Northern Territory’s largest landowner, Viv Oldfield, several hours north up the Stuart Highway from Suncable’s 10 GW and 20 GW solar proposals.
The proponent, Energy North, wants to cover between 6,000 and 7,000 hectares of land with solar, and build a “hydrogen-ready” gas plant – a proposal that has drawn the ire of Greenpeace which says it would more than double fossil gas generation in the territory.
“This hyperscale project proposes massive new off-grid gas infrastructure, making a mockery of the federal government’s unenforceable ‘expectations’ that data centres will cover their own power use with renewables,” said Greenpeace campaigner Solaye Snider.
“This proposal also raises serious questions about where this new gas would come from. Could it come from fracking the Beetaloo? Communities deserve to have the full picture before this project is approved.”
