Wind turbines are seen on a hill in Waterloo, South Australia, on April 18, 2013. Morne de Klerk/Getty Images
Renewable energy groups have told a Senate inquiry that AI data centres could unlock a wave of stalled wind, solar and battery projects, but only if developers are forced to fund new generation rather than buy up existing supply.
He compared that to adding the entire South Australian and Western Australian grids together. Meeting that demand with gas, he said, would need about 230 petajoules, roughly half of all gas used on the east coast today.
Edis said the renewable industry already has the capacity to cover the shortfall. Green Energy Markets’ database shows 41,000 megawatts of wind and solar projects with planning approval, capable of generating 86 terawatt-hours a year, more than double the forecast data centre demand.
Nicholas Aberle, director of policy and advocacy at the Clean Energy Investor Group, said 92 percent of his organisation’s members believe data centre demand will have a positive effect on renewable energy investment, since data centres can sign the long-term power contracts that stalled renewable projects need to begin construction.
The witnesses were united in saying there must, however, be one condition: those contracts must fund new projects, not just source electricity from wind and solar farms that were already operating.
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Under Australia’s renewable certificate scheme, a data centre can currently claim to use clean energy by purchasing certificates linked to renewable generation from existing or new projects.
Liberal Senator Calls Evidence ‘Self-Serving’
But Senator Sarah Henderson rejected the panel’s framing outright.
“I have to say this is some of the most self-serving evidence,” she told the witnesses, arguing that data centres “should not become a financing mechanism for the renewable energy industry dressed up as energy policy.”
She said the renewable sector had treated regional communities, including in Victoria, with contempt, citing a wind turbine built 300 metres from a home and Victoria’s removal of third-party appeal rights for renewable energy planning decisions.
Henderson argued data centres needed reliable, round-the-clock power and had “a right to source the cheapest form of power,” which she said was not renewable energy once government subsidies were stripped out.
Aberle pushed back, saying wind and solar developments require the consent of landholders who sign leases voluntarily, and must pass extensive planning and environmental assessment before approval.
Edis put a direct question to Henderson: if data centres are going to be built regardless, how would Australia meet the 32 terawatt-hours of new demand without renewables?
Having projects approved on paper does not necessarily mean the electricity can be delivered to consumers.
The problem adds another layer to the debate over whether AI data centres should merely purchase renewable-energy certificates or help finance new generation and the infrastructure needed to connect it.
