By Helen Clark and Byron Kaye
DARWIN/SYDNEY, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The developer of one of Australia's biggest planned data centres scrapped its target start date after a regulator said it needed longer than usual to set environmental parameters, a setback to the country's ambitions to be a fast-track destination for AI investment.
Startup Energy North, which says it has finance lined up for a sprawling gas and solar-powered data centre on a cattle ranch in the country's remote north, 683 km (424 miles)
from the nearest city, had given a "first power" date of June 28, 2028, in regulatory filings four months ago.
But after the Northern Territory environment regulator said in an October 7 ruling it was suspending its seven-week deadline to decide what hurdles the project must clear, the developer told Reuters it had scrubbed its timeline.
"The June 2028 date in our referral was an indicative schedule at the time of lodgement, and we're no longer working to it," said Energy North vice president of project development Daniel Hunter in an email.
The project is the biggest in Australia to put back its timing and shows how data centre ambitions face hurdles even in the isolated north, which has sought to differentiate itself from cities in the contest for the $7 trillion McKinsey forecasts will be invested in "AI factories" globally by 2030.
The Territory is counting on luring projects with its vast supply of uninhabited land and sunshine — 260,000 residents in an area twice the size of Texas, with as much sun as the Sahara — and a huge just-opened shale gas reserve for backup power.
But stopping the clock on Energy North, the Territory's regulator said it would seek advice from the federal government, which is "developing policy expectations for data centres and AI infrastructure developers", and gave no new timeframe.
Hunter said the project was unfazed and would confirm timing once the regulator sets out terms for an environmental impact statement, required to identify and address potential adverse effects. He declined to say who is lined up to finance the project.
ISOLATED TERRITORY NOT IMMUNE TO PUSHBACK
At 1 gigawatt, Energy North's "Project Ares" is four times the size of a data centre expansion in Melbourne delayed this month by developer NextDC due to energy supply concerns and 10 times the size of a project pulled by Goodman in Sydney amid resident pushback.
"Our antiquated planning frameworks weren't designed for proposals like this," said Adam Beck, an urban planner who has written environmental impact statements for infrastructure projects and advises governments.
"Tearing up timelines is kind of standard process, but I'm not going to discount the lack of social license. There is a certain heightened level of concern by the community, and that's playing out on real projects."
In its ruling on Energy North's proposed 191 sq km (74 sq mile) data centre campus, including a gas turbine system, solar farm, airstrip and accommodation for 4,300 construction workers, the Territory's Environment Protection Agency warned of 10 impacts, from straining water systems to disrupting Aboriginal sacred sites.
It said it had a "low level of confidence in the effectiveness of proposed measures to manage potential significant impact".
Northern Territory business minister Robyn Cahill, who has said her government was talking to 12 data centre-related projects, didn't respond to requests for comment.
FEASIBILITY IN FOCUS
The gap between hope and reality isn't limited to Energy North's project. Beetaloo Energy has proposed a data centre near Darwin, twice the size of Project Ares. It would use up to 400 terajoules of gas a day, based on an estimate it gave of needing 200 terajoules per gigawatt.
That is 10 times the volume of gas flowing from the Beetaloo Basin's only producing project, Tamboran's Shenandoah South. Beetaloo Energy aims to start producing a small volume by year-end.
Just those two data centres would total 3 gigawatts, about 10 times peak demand on the entire Territory's grid. Both companies said their energy would ultimately combine renewables with their own gas-fired power, bypassing the grid. Details of the other 10 Territory projects haven't been disclosed.
Aboriginal consultation in a territory where a quarter of the population is Indigenous, meanwhile, needs travel, interpreters and repeat visits, and expediting it "does not produce prompt consent", Aboriginal group the Northern Land Council said in a submission to an ongoing federal inquiry.
The Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association expected data centre development with "effective regulation, properly enforced, that safeguards pastoral operations and the land, water and environment both industries depend on", said CEO Romy Carey.
The Territory government can override stakeholder objections but not when a complaint goes to the federal or High Court, said Rolf Gerritsen, a former policy head for the Territory chief minister's office who teaches at Charles Darwin University.
"If you've got increased opposition groups ... whatever the development proposal is, it does tend to tie it up," he said.
(Reporting by Helen Clark and Byron Kaye; Editing by Sonali Paul)
