SunCable has shifted its focus to supplying renewable energy to Australian data centres through its Australia-Asia Power Link solar and battery initiative, which the company said was in response to the growing demand for renewable solutions for energy-intensive data centres and will occur before exporting the power overseas.
AAPowerLink CEO Ryan Willemsen-Bell told a conference in Darwin last week that SunCable’s focus change aligns with the government’s goal to position the country as a regional hub for AI data centres. Mr Willemsen-Bell said the company is now considering electricity sales to co-located and nearby customers in the Barkly region before supplying industrial users in Darwin and then on to Singapore as originally planned.
Data centres need stable 24/7 power. I see they are still dreaming about green power. The government has wasted billions on subsidies for hydrogen production that has so far proved to be unviable.
No data centre is ever going to rely solely on so called “renewable” energy. It’s more accurate to call it Intermittent Energy.
They will have to have reliable (i.e. coal, gas, nuclear) energy to back up the Intermittent Energy.
So the costs of their power will be effectively doubled by going down any Intermittent Energy path.
Or… they could just rely on reliable energy and save half the cost.
This is why Intermittent Energy is the most expensive energy on the planet. Case in point, South Australia.
I hope the previous Labor government did not sign any contracts with this lot.