{"id":428762,"date":"2026-01-21T23:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/428762\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T23:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:52:10","slug":"10-billion-data-centre-planned-for-hazelwood-in-victorias-latrobe-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/428762\/","title":{"rendered":"$10 billion data centre planned for Hazelwood in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victoria’s Gippsland region will soon be home to one of the largest pieces of artificial intelligence infrastructure in Australia.<\/p>\n

Singaporean asset manager and operator Keppel Ltd plans to build a 720-megawatt data centre worth $10 billion at a 123-hectare site near Morwell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Situated in the heart of coal country, the site at Hazelwood has unique appeal for the data centre industry given its proximity to one of the state’s largest electricity nodes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Located within the proposed Gippsland Renewable Energy Zone, the company said it would have the required resources, in terms of transmission and water, to run the centre.<\/p>\n

“We are in active discussions with hyperscalers and neoclouds regarding the future capacity provided by the site, many of whom have expressed keen interest in Melbourne \u2014 one of Australia’s fastest growing data centre markets,” said Keppel CEO of connectivity, Manjot Singh Mann.<\/p>\n

“The site near Morwell offers significant scalability with clear pathways to securing competitively priced green power, non-potable water for cooling, and low-latency fibre connectivity, making it a compelling location to site next-generation AI campuses.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The Yallourn Power Station is set to be turned into a renewable energy hub. (ABC TV)<\/p>\n

The deal comes after EnergyAustralia announced its proposal in November to convert the Yallourn coal power site into a $5 billion low-carbon emissions hub to support similar data centres.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A booming industry<\/p>\n

Data centre demand is booming.<\/p>\n

An estimated 4,000 data centres are currently in operation around the globe, with Australia ranking in the top-five locations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Simon Wilson says the the race is on to get data centres built. (Supplied: Simon Wilson)<\/p>\n

According to Fortune Business Insights, the global data centre market is projected to grow from $US269 billion ($398.7 billion) in 2025 to $US584 billion by 2032.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gippsland-based AI consultant Simon Wilson said data centres were critical to the operation of Australia’s technology infrastructure.<\/p>\n

“When we do a query into Googles, or chat with AI \u2026 it is done by a data centre,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“So it’s really just a massive factory full of computers that are doing the work that your local computers can’t do.”\"A<\/p>\n

Australia is considered a key regional hub for data centres. (Supplied: Google)<\/p>\n

Mr Wilson said the site at Morwell was uniquely placed to attract the data centre industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Providers are really looking for locations with power, which is the primary one for Gippsland,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ve got the most available transmission power in the grid in the country \u2026 so a lot of the big tech providers are eager to take advantage of that and plug their data centres in here.”<\/p>\n

The growing use of internet-connected devices, along with AI services, is putting an increased demand on data centre capacity in Australia and around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to a 2024 report compiled by Mandala Partners, additional investment in Australia’s data centre capacity is forecast to top $26 billion by 2030 to meet the demand.<\/p>\n

A ‘catalyst’ for change<\/p>\n

If realised, the centre would mark a turning point for the Latrobe Valley, which has struggled with high unemployment since the old Hazelwood mine’s closure and the transition away from coal-fired power stations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sharon Gibson says data centres could bring a new industry to the Latrobe Valley. (Supplied: Latrobe City)<\/p>\n

Latrobe City Council Mayor Sharon Gibson said the council welcomed the opportunity for new investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ve been doing a lot of work to try and transform our economy \u2026 with the situation with the power stations, we have to look at, ‘How are we going to have employment down here?'” she said.<\/p>\n

“So we see this as the catalyst for transforming our economy.”<\/p>\n

Cr Gibson said the local government would work through the planning approval process with Keppel.<\/p>\n

Environmental groups have raised concerns about the impact data centres would have on the region’s water supplies, should they go ahead.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Tracey Anton says the community needs more detail.\u00a0 (ABC News: Jarrod Whittaker)<\/p>\n

Friends of Latrobe Valley Water organiser Tracey Anton said while the group was not opposed to data centres, more detail was needed about how the project would source its water and manage that with other competing interests, including planned mine rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

“Everyone’s wondering, where’s this water coming from? What are they going to do? How does this intersect with the mine rehabilitation?” she said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to make sure our drinking water is protected \u2026 that’s where we’re going to be focusing our attention.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victoria’s Gippsland region will soon be home to one of the largest pieces of artificial intelligence infrastructure in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[256,254,224835,64,63,99,2458,1772,57480,29203,237,224834,224836,105],"class_list":["post-428762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-asset-manager-and-operator","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-data","tag-data-centres","tag-gippsland","tag-hazelwood","tag-internet","tag-keppel","tag-latrobe-city-council","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}