{"id":833526,"date":"2026-07-30T13:53:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833526\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T13:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:53:17","slug":"australia-data-centres-albanese-could-force-states-to-follow-his-lead-on-green-energy-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833526\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia data centres: Albanese could force states to follow his lead on green energy centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese could force pro-coal states to comply with rules mandating renewable energy for data centres, setting up a clash over the lucrative artificial intelligence boom at next week\u2019s meeting of national cabinet.<\/p>\n

Industry Minister Tim Ayres told this masthead that national unity was critical ahead of the prime minister\u2019s meeting with state leaders on Wednesday<\/a> to sign off on obligations for the construction of the digital processing facilities the power-hungry programs demand.<\/p>\n

\"PrimePrime Minister Anthony Albanese adopted a muscular approach to AI in a speech at the University of Sydney on July 14.Louise Kennerley<\/p>\n

Ayres said state co-operation was key to securing \u201cmore investment, a modern energy system, water security, and \u2026 benefits to locals\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Albanese\u2019s aim of winning support of states, which control planning and regulations, has been threatened by the intransigent conservative premiers David Crisafulli, of Queensland, and Lia Finocchiaro, of the NT.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Prime<\/a><\/p>\n

The two states promote the use of fossil fuels and this week opposed a plan to require large data centres to power their operations with renewables, when they dissented from the majority support of other states during a meeting of state and federal energy ministers on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The rise of renewables in the electricity grid is contentious for Queensland, which has a fleet of state-owned coal plants suffering in competition from wind and solar farms, while the Northern Territory is backing the development of a gas field in the Beetaloo Basin, which it says could fuel an industrial boom in the Top End.<\/p>\n

Queensland Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki said after the meeting that his state supported \u201creliable and sustainable\u201d power, a nod to fossil fuels, not \u201cunderdeveloped ideas that hand increased power to Canberra\u201d.<\/p>\n

A communique from the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council said most ministers agreed to \u201cmandate that data centres offset their electricity demand by investing in additional renewable generation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ministers from the federal, NSW, Victorian, Tasmanian, South Australian and ACT governments agreed to develop a scheme to force data centres to prove they sourced electricity from renewable projects.<\/p>\n

Support from most states is required for the scheme, meaning it can be implemented without the backing of Queensland and the Northern Territory, which have conservative governments that often oppose Labor-led states at ministerial forums.<\/p>\n

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen said he would keep working with states to implement the plan, which would be designed to put downward pressure on electricity prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government\u2019s proposal didn\u2019t need unanimous support,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is up to Queensland and NT to explain why they don\u2019t support changes that will stop data centres pushing up power bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia is home to 162 operating data centres which consume about 2 per cent of total electricity demand on the eastern seaboard. The Australian Energy Market Operator has forecast data centres would reach 10 per cent of demand by 2050.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Illustration<\/a><\/p>\n

It is unclear how the renewables mandate would work.<\/p>\n

In a landmark speech outlining his government\u2019s vision on AI<\/a>, Albanese said the government would enact new legislation, to be tabled early next week, for new, large data centres to offset their power usage and \u201cbuild new renewable generation \u2013 and firming \u2013 to strengthen our national energy resilience\u201d.<\/p>\n

Assistant Data Minister Andrew Charlton said this month that data centre developers could invest in gas plants where necessary for firming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is certainly not anti-gas,\u201d Charlton said. \u201cMore important than where that power comes from, I\u2019m focused on the consumers \u2026 and I don\u2019t want data centres to be another reason why their power prices are going up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reserve Bank chief economist Sarah Hunter on Thursday said the sheer size of the data centre boom had caught the bank by surprise.<\/p>\n

She revealed the RBA was creating a team to analyse the surge in data centre construction, which some analysts believed was on track to be larger than the early 2010s mining boom. Analysis by Westpac suggests there is already a pipeline for $155 billion worth of projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Hunter, the companies investing in data centres are keen to get work under way as soon as practicable, which could put pressure on the broader construction sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re saying that it\u2019s almost they want it as quick as possible because they just need this capacity in place because it\u2019s so valuable to them,\u201d she told the Barrenjoey economics forum in Sydney.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis thing didn\u2019t really exist even 18 months ago. The numbers were really, really small, a couple of billion a quarter, this is not to be getting excited about. Now we\u2019re nearly 10-fold higher in some cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"PaulPaul Sakkal<\/a> is Chief Political Correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and won a Walkley award and the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.\"MikeMike Foley<\/a> is the climate and energy correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-833526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833526","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=833526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}