{
  "id": 7391746,
  "title": "Unsustainable – or manageable? We don’t yet know how data centres will impact Australia’s environment",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/14/unsustainable-or-manageable-we-dont-yet-know-how-data-centres-will",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-14T20:10:37.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Conversation AU",
    "slug": "the-conversation-au",
    "url": "https://theconversation.com/unsustainable-or-manageable-we-dont-yet-know-how-data-centres-will-impact-australias-environment-290423"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The growing number of data centre projects in Australia has sparked concerns about their environmental impact, primarily regarding energy and water consumption. However, the data required to comprehensively assess these impacts is currently unavailable. The National Cabinet recently agreed to develop mandatory national standards for large data centres, which are expected to cover energy, water, and land use, with the legislation slated for early next year.\n\nData centres have been around for decades, but recent growth driven by artificial intelligence has intensified the debate. In 2020, data centres consumed around 1.5% of the world's electricity, but since 2022, the boom in AI has led to rapid expansion. Australia's 165 operating data centres are estimated to use around 3% of the power from the National Electricity Market, potentially rising to 13% by the mid-2030s. This would place them on par with aluminium smelters.\n\nWater use is another challenging aspect to quantify. Current national water use is estimated to be a fraction of 1%, but this varies greatly depending on the location of the data centre. Some proposed sites are in hot, dry areas where water is already scarce, such as Bundey and Tailem Bend in South Australia. The impact of water use will depend on the cooling technology employed. For instance, certain cooling methods can lead to significant water loss.\n\nWhile energy efficiency and advanced liquid cooling can reduce water usage by up to 50%, these measures do not fully address the issue. Australia could build highly efficient data centres, but without adequate data, it's difficult to predict the true environmental impact. Ireland provides a stark contrast, where data centres consume 23% of the country's electricity, similar to household consumption. However, Ireland's transparency in data collection allows policymakers to make informed decisions.",
  "summary": "The data centre boom will mean more energy and water use. The real question is how the energy is produced – and where the water comes from.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}