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CDC Data Centres is seeking approval to build a 1.4-gigawatt data centre complex on council-owned land near Wagga Wagga, citing grid capacity and renewable energy access.
Canberra-based CDC Data Centres is proposing a $15 billion data centre on the outskirts of Wagga Wagga. The company is working through planning requirements, with community consultation expected to begin soon.
A $15 billion data centre is being proposed for a site near Wagga Wagga in south-western New South Wales. Canberra-based CDC Data Centres intends to build the 1.4-gigawatt development on council-owned land next to a landfill facility on Ashfords Road at Gregadoo, 15 kilometres from the regional centre.
"It's sandwiched between renewable energy zones, it's got significant spare capacity in the grid, there's a university, a skilled workforce and it's proximate to Canberra where we're headquartered," he said. Mr Boorer said CDC has been in discussions with Wagga Wagga City Council for about nine months, with the proposed purchase of the site progressing. In a statement the council said the proposal represents a potentially generational economic, investment and workforce opportunity for Wagga Wagga and the wider region.
"Council recognises that the Wagga Wagga community will have questions and concerns about data centres generally, as well as the location of the proposal and its potential impacts," the statement said. A scoping report lodged with the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure shows the company plans to build four single-storey buildings on the site, each about the size of a supermarket distribution centre.
The site is about a kilometre from Transgrid's Wagga Wagga substation, which is critical given the amount of electricity required to power the site. According to its scoping report, cooling of the data centres would use mechanical infrastructure such as chiller decks and pump rooms designed to minimise water consumption.
"The location is excellent because you're a long way from homes and people. It's next to a rubbish tip where people don't want to necessarily live anyway,"The report also cites plans for a closed-loop radiator system to minimise water use, 384 back-up diesel generators, on-site diesel storage amounting to 6,400 tonnes, and two large-scale batteries.
"Diesel is really difficult to burn, and that's why it's a good and safe way of powering the generators," he said. The proposed development has been deemed state significant by the NSW government, and CDC said it was working its way through planning requirements, with community engagement expected to begin soon.
The scoping report identifies the visual impact of the data centres on the rural landscape, noise impacts, water demand and security issues and the loss of agricultural land as matters of interest to the community.were withdrawn on Monday amid community anger about the project, while consultation processes at another proposed data centre at Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands have come under scrutiny due to a "I completely understand this is change. It's different, and people have lots and lots of questions," Mr Boorer said.
"We'll be doing lots of community engagement and education sessions, so people realise there are lots of forms and operators of data centres. "We need to make sure they're in the right locations, so we're not competing for different resources with communities. "Mr Boorer said, if approved, the Gregadoo data centre would be CDC's first regionally based venture, with its other data centres in Auckland, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.
Wagga Wagga already hosts a smaller-scale 300-kilowatt data centre owned by Leading Edge, which also has sites in Newcastle, Albury, Tamworth, Dubbo and Coffs Harbour. Mr Boorer said the company would need to source finance for the project, but was confident it would not be an issue.
"For economic prosperity and cyber-resilience, it's imperative we actually have these capabilities in Australia, to leverage for our own benefit, but also to protect our systems," he said.
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