The world’s cleanest electrons and brightest minds can converge here, but not by accident. We’ve got the land, the investment, and the will to do this - but policy must account for the resource-intensity of these projects.

Last week, we saw how efficiency matters in this equation; co-locating energy with data centres reduces grid pressures and decentralizes compute consumption. Renewable Energy Zones could be the ideal locations for regional development hubs that host new job-creating industries - like data centres.

However, despite the fact that 70% of farmers would consider hosting new energy infrastructure, the common media narrative is one of conflict and tension in the regions.

Last week, we explored Gridlock — the transmission bottleneck in our national electricity grid.

Transmission is expensive though, and takes a long time to build. What if we bought the power directly to the data centres themselves?

By 2030, Australia’s data centres could consume 15% of our national electricity per Morgan Stanley research, more than almost every other industry in Australia. But, there’s an obstacle that could stall this clean-powered boom before it begins - the grid.

Data centres could use 10% of Australia’s electricity by 2030—more than manufacturing (Morgan Stanley Research). Based on AEMO forecasts, CZI predicts an 11 TWh clean energy shortfall, likely to be filled by coal, prolonging its use (1-2 GW of coal capacity).

CZI’s project seeks policy, community and industry alignment to ensure Australia’s data centre opportunity is realised—carbon free