Before committing fully, we need granular detail on how much water and energy these centres use.
We can’t manage what we don’t measure. Data centres are a textbook example of a data gap impeding good policy.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics rolls data centres into a broader category.
This means we can’t access detailed statistics on how much water or energy data centres use. Nor how much they add to the national accounts.
The federal government has introduced new expectations on water use and efficiency for data centre operators. That’s something. But it’s not the same as a national picture that fits with existing official statistics. Only one data centre meets the new national water-efficiency rating.
Surprisingly, Australia’s National AI Plan has little focus on water and energy. State and federal water ministers have named data centres as an emerging threat to water security. A Senate inquiry is in progress.
Australia is a dry continent. They don’t even bring up climate change in the article. Imo we are stumbling around in the dark, or in the slop, for a technology which is taking away our privacy, our safety and even our sovereignty. Will it also rob people’s and the environment’s right to water and clean energy? We are too easily distracted by, and from, this behemoth.
Another fun question to ask is what happens during dry periods when water restrictions are imposed? Who will go thirsty first, the oligarch’s investment or the peasantry?
In the 2023–24 financial year, Australian industries consumed about 17.6 million megalitres of water – about 30 times the water in Sydney Harbour.
Of this, agriculture, forestry and fishing consumed about two-thirds of the total – nearly 11.8 million ML. This water was used to produce goods valued at A$54.6 billion – roughly $4,600 for every megalitre consumed.
What does agriculture, forestry and fishing do in such conditions?
I’d argue that those industries are beneficial to the genral population. I wouldn’t say the same about data centres.
you say typing on a forum hosted in a data centre?
Nobody is building an 800 MW data centre in SA to provide services we’ve already got.
great! more benefits to SA then?
More services we use hosted in Australia
That electricity they are using doesn’t come for free, that’s more money going towards SA power
Speaking of SA may be best positioned for this, their price fluctuations are massive because they lack heavy industrial use
So good news SA gets to sell more of it’s excess power to someone, it already announced the other day it was building a ton of big batteries
Six battery energy storage projects will be fast-tracked to massively bolster the resilience of South Australia’s energy system, more than doubling the state’s large-scale battery storage capacity and supporting an estimated $2.2 billion of local investment in new storage projects.
https://www.premier.sa.gov.au/media-releases/news-items/new-energy-projects-to-underpin-sas-capacity
SA has the highest curtailment of anyone, too much solar in middle of the day and not enough at night, it’s good some of this will be getting soaked up now
Australia is a dry continent. They don’t even bring up climate change in the article
I don’t get it? The water doesn’t disappear it just goes back into the air again as it evaporates
Will it also rob people’s and the environment’s right to water and clean energy
If the government is running out of water then they should build more desalination plants, in terms of energy:
In addition to bringing their own clean energy or storage to offset demand on the grid, operators will be expected to cover the full share of power connection costs and support network stability.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said it was important to get the investment settings right to keep the electricity system secure and prices low.
“Data centres have great potential to support our grid and expand new renewable investment,” he said.
I don’t get it? The water doesn’t disappear it just goes back into the air again as it evaporates
Water in the air is useless. Water on the ground, in storage, is useful. That’s the hard part, it doesn’t fall out of the sky on demand.
If the government is running out of water then they should build more desalination plants, in terms of energy
The “government” isn’t the one running out of water. It’s the population, and desal plants a) aren’t cheap b) use more power than what the bare minimum of renewable energy a data center install will provide after it’s own usage and c) has environmental issues as well with excess salinity getting put back in the oceans, and - oh yeah - you have to put it next to the ocean.
If companies want to build datacenters, they need to provide cooling methods that don’t use prodigious amounts of water, or they can fuck off.
Those alternative methods are entirely possible, it’s just that they’re not the cheapest option available, so of course nobody wants to do it .
