Will data centres save the Australian renewable sector? Or will they blow the country’s renewable and climate targets out of the water? It’s a polarising debate, almost as deep as the arguments around social licence, location, and to what extent this so-called AI boom is in fact real.
And the issue is moving at a frightening pace. Project announcements are no longer made in the billions, but the tens of billions. Data centre proposals emerge out of nowhere in someone’s backyard. OpenAi admits that one of its off-line models has gone rogue, connected itself to the internet and attacked another company’s data base.
What exactly do we know and understand about this technology? And what will its impacts be on the grid, and on other consumers? Oh, them!
Not much, but governments and some industries are convinced it must be a good thing and are desperate to hitch a ride – the federal government because it fears Australia may be left behind, the renewables industry because it doesn’t see so many buyers knocking on its doors these days.
The federal government has made clear that it wants data centres, but says it also wants them to bring their own renewables to the grid, effectively forcing them to sign deals with new wind, solar and battery projects to power their energy hungry processors.
