After Australia ranked second<\/a> globally for data centre investment in 2024, the Albanese government announced plans<\/a> for \u201cnational data centre principles<\/a>\u201d to align growth with \u201coverall national interests\u201d, including sustainability.<\/p>\n The principles are expected to be finalised in coming weeks.<\/p>\n Lobby group weighs in<\/p>\n The data was published under CER\u2019s National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) scheme, which requires large corporations to report emissions annually.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, newly formed lobby group Data Centres Australia (DCA) pushed back on what it described as \u201cconfusion\u201d around the latest findings.<\/p>\n DCA chief executive Belinda Dennett said it is 67 per cent \u201cmore energy efficient\u201d to run compute from \u201cpurpose-built data centres\u201d than on-premise servers.<\/p>\n Data Centres Australia CEO Belinda Dennet says data centres are more energy efficient than on-premise servers. Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n \u201cWhile data centres have increasingly become more energy efficient in their operations, we are using more digital services which means more energy consumption to drive the compute,\u201d said Dennett.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ongoing shift of workloads from on-premise servers to data centres, the ongoing uptake of cloud, and the new adoption of artificial intelligence by businesses and consumers means data centre customers are \u2018ramping up\u2019 \u2013 that is filling their data hall space with more operational servers.<\/p>\n \u201cThis means there is more energy use and therefore more scope two emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n Tim Prosser, founder of advisory Sustainably Digital, said DCA\u2019s response overlooked \u2018scope three\u2019 emissions, including the \u201cembodied carbon\u201d in IT hardware installed in data centres.<\/p>\n \u201cResearch indicates that roughly 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions for IT hardware occur during the manufacturing phase \u2013 before a server is ever turned on,\u201d said Prosser.<\/p>\n DCA also said about 70 per cent of the sector\u2019s energy use is offset in part through renewable Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). Prosser, however, argued that \u201crelying heavily on PPAs is a known weakness in cloud sustainability reporting\u201d.<\/p>\n Tim Prosser, founder of advisory Sustainably Digital, says 80 per cent of emissions occur during the hardweare manufacturing phase. Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n \u201cOffsetting emissions on paper does not negate the physical reality of drawing fossil-fuel-heavy power from the local grid to run compute tasks,\u201d said Prosser.<\/p>\n DCA members include AirTrunk, Amazon Web Services and CDC.<\/p>\n Energy prices in focus<\/p>\n Iain MacGill, joint director at UNSW\u2019s Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets, told Information Age that beyond \u201cenvironmental implications\u201d, Australians should be concerned about \u201cenergy price increases and increased network investment\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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