Artificial intelligence hubs must be powered by additional renewable energy projects rather than credits, and the projects should be built within years rather than decades.
Climate groups issued the call on Monday before a meeting of national and state energy ministers that is expected to discuss obligations for Australia’s data centre boom.
The call comes less than two weeks after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced plans to ensure data centre operators paid for new energy projects to power their developments, and after research showed most Australians supported the measure.
The Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council is expected to hold a virtual meeting within days to discuss topics including data centre energy obligations.
At the last meeting, energy ministers from all states but Queensland agreed data centre operators should fully offset their power use with renewable sources, in addition to providing greater transparency around their emissions.
