Americans urge caution as Australia braces for data centre boom

As a dominatrix drag queen marched through a crowd in North Carolina, she aimed to challenge the perception that tech giants were responsible for rising power prices. Protesters at a rally in Durham accused data centres of driving up their electricity bills, despite the facilities not yet being built. Local activists, led by The Raging Grannies, sang about standing up to profiteers.

The opposition in the US was not only environmental but also ideological, with concerns about surveillance data and job displacement. North Carolina, home to about 90 data centres, is projected to have 4,000 by 2026. Duke Energy, the local power company, applied for an 18% price increase, which is still under negotiation. Data centre developers promise jobs, but many claim the majority of positions remain unfilled.

In Australia, there are 165 operating data centres and 225 more in development, with data centres expected to account for 13% of the country's power usage by 2036. Critics argue that a lack of transparency fuels community pushback, as companies often refuse to share information about water usage, air pollution, and other environmental impacts.

Australia's federal government is introducing rules requiring data centres to fund new renewable energy to offset their usage, though exemptions exist for Queensland and the Northern Territory. Experts suggest that Australia should learn from the US experience to legislate transparency and ensure developers build in the right locations near reliable electricity supplies.