{"id":798659,"date":"2026-07-14T00:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/798659\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T00:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:56:11","slug":"coalition-repitches-ruinous-nuclear-policy-for-data-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/798659\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition repitches ruinous nuclear policy for data centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Coalition has repitched its nuclear policy for the booming data centre industry<\/a>, despite the contentious energy sector being one of the reasons the party lost the last election so dramatically.<\/p>\n

Nuclear energy is needed to support the growing number of data centres across Australia, Aaron Violi, the shadow science, technology and digital economy minister, told Sky News on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Liberal MP Aaron Violi with Opposition Leader Angus Taylor.\u00a0Eamon Gallagher<\/p>\n

\u201cWe literally don\u2019t have enough renewable energy in this country to power the country and to power data centres,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Nuclear energy essentially produces zero emissions and can run non-stop all day, but concerns have been raised about its radioactive waste, the risk of a potential reactor meltdown and the billion-dollar price tag.<\/p>\n

The Coalition ran its last election campaign on building seven nuclear reactors in Australia, which was partly behind its historic loss at the ballot box. <\/p>\n

Violi defended revisiting nuclear as an energy option, pointing the finger at the government for creating a scare campaign and questioning why the nation cannot use the same resources it is exporting overseas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the last election, the Labor Party ran a lie and a scare campaign talking about $600 billion in cost, which wasn\u2019t true, by the way, it was a complete fabrication,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The Climate Council in June warned that data centre growth could increase power prices across the grid<\/a> by more than 20 per cent by 2035 if it relies on fossil gas. <\/p>\n

It said the impact to prices would be reduced if data centre growth was matched with new renewable energy. <\/p>\n

The federal government has a memorandum for data centres that lays out five non-binding rules, including supporting the nation\u2019s transition to renewable energy. <\/p>\n

Companies must use clean energy generation, minimise their energy demand and improve the stability of the energy grid. <\/p>\n

It comes as data centre energy use is estimated to triple from 2 per cent of electricity in the main grid in 2025 to 6 per cent by 2030, enough to power all the homes in Victoria, according to the Climate Council.<\/p>\n

By 2050, data centres could use about 12 per cent of power on the grid.<\/p>\n

Data centres are also expected to consume 17 gigalitres of water to help cool the facilities over the next five years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A data centre in a suburb in Melbourne.\u00a0Joe Armao<\/p>\n

So far, there are an estimated 163 operational data centres across Australia and 90 proposed developments.<\/p>\n

Australia<\/a> is seeing a data centre investment boom after emerging as the second most attractive destination in the world for the facilities, behind the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The federal government has hailed data centres as an economic saviour and more impactful than the resources boom of the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe immediate effect of the data centre rush is a shot in the arm for global economic growth,\u201d Assistant Science, Technology and Digital Economy Minister Andrew Charlton said in June.<\/p>\n

The Australian economy, which is suffering slow GDP growth, above-target inflation and the effects of the war in the Middle East<\/a>, is being pulled by an investment in data centres. <\/p>\n

Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michele Bullock said data centres were part of the reason why the board was forecasting continued growth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvestment has\u00a0been\u00a0a\u00a0bright\u00a0spot\u00a0recently,\u00a0and\u00a0growth is expected to continue in sectors of the economy with strong structural tailwinds, such as software, data centres and renewable energy,\u201d she told the Senate in June. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Coalition has repitched its nuclear policy for the booming data centre industry, despite the contentious energy sector…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-798659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798659","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=798659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}