Australia will adopt nationally consistent data centre development standards to encourage renewable generation, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said on 29 August, despite recent comments from Queensland Premier David Crisafulli.
The Federal Government plans to require data centre developers to build new renewable generation, underwrite power costs, and pay for grid connections from early 2027, according to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
States and territories will be able to apply to exempt themselves from the Federal Government’s renewable generation rule if they can supply non-renewable energy at a lower cost than renewable energy, Bowen said on 29 August.
“[But] the [Federal Government] will decide [whether to grant rule exemptions], and we know that renewables are the cheapest form of [energy. That’s] why we’re requiring data centres to use renewable energy,” Bowen added.
The Government expects to apply its data centre standards nationwide. “There [will be] no carve-out for Queensland or the Northern Territory. There [will be] no card that they can play to say we don’t have to comply with [data centre development] rules,” Bowen said.
Bowen’s comments come days after Crisafulli – on 26 August – reportedly told the ABC that Queensland had won an exemption from the Government’s renewable energy rule at National Cabinet. National Cabinet is an inter-governmental forum including the Prime Minister, the Northern Territory’s Chief Minister, and every state premier.
Federal, state, and territorial officials will develop mandatory standards for data centre-related energy use, water use and land use, National Cabinet members said on 26 August. The standards will improve clarity for investors, support Australian national interests, and protect the economy, they added.
Albanese announced the Federal Government’s planned data centre development rules on 15 July, as part of a wider artificial intelligence (AI) regulation framework. “[The] framework is about protecting [Australian] national interests and ensuring certainty for growth, jobs and investment,” he said in a statement.
“The real issues AI presents are not technical ones - they are economic ones, legal ones, social ones, and as Pope Leo has made clear in his superb first Papal Encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, they [are] also moral and spiritual ones,” Albanese later said during a speech at the University of Sydney.
“[The issues] are tests of our national values and our national interests,” he added.
By Avinash Govind