Data centre could draw quarter of state’s power<\/a><\/p>\nThe proposed $30 billion data centre in Queensland has a peak capacity comparable to the average power requirements of 1.5 million households.<\/p>\n
The government said the digital park would not require any new transmission infrastructure, and would use minimal water during operation.<\/p>\n
The Western Downs hub’s water usage will be broadly comparable with a conventional office building of the same size.<\/p>\n
The plot earmarked for the park is about 725 hectares, with the facility expected to take four to six years to build.<\/p>\n
Anthropic’s lease is subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval.<\/p>\n
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David Crisafulli is lobbying for coal and gas to power data centres as well as renewables. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n
The Queensland government and the Commonwealth recently locked horns over rules for new data centre development.<\/p>\n
The federal Labor government had wanted all new data centres to be anchored by new renewable energy projects.<\/p>\n
But the state LNP administration successfully argued Queensland go its own way and use a range of energy sources including coal and gas.<\/p>\n
“To have secured Anthropic’s first major investment in Australia is an endorsement for our state’s open for business approach, and the commonsense decision endorsed by the prime minister and national cabinet to allow Queensland’s unique position in owning its power generation and transmission assets,” Mr Crisafulli said.<\/p>\n
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CEO and Co-Founder of Anthropic Dario Amodei recently issued a public warning about the pace of AI development. (Reuters: Denis Balibouse)<\/p>\n
“This allows our state to be at the forefront of locking in data sovereignty and adding energy generation for lower power prices for Queenslanders and employment opportunities.”<\/p>\n
Locals ‘cannot be sacrificed’<\/p>\n
Federal Maranoa MP David Littleproud welcomed the project but said it must deliver “genuine, lasting benefits” for the local community.<\/p>\n
“Power reliability and cost for existing homes, farmers and businesses cannot be sacrificed to get this project across the line,” Mr Littleproud said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Save Our Darling Downs spokesperson and farmer Liza Balmain said the community had been “asking for the brakes to be put on” the data centre project.<\/p>\n
“We are deeply concerned about the proposed energy consumption of this particular data centre … and the fact that it could be running on gas-fired power generation,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Balmain also expressed concerns about the effect of increased coal seam gas production on the region’s aquifers.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately an announcement like this will likely lead to the accelerator being put on.”<\/p>\n
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Save Our Darling Downs spokesperson Liza Balmain says she’s concerned about the impact the project will have on the region. (ABC News: Brandon Long)<\/p>\n
Western Downs Mayor Andrew Smith said the deal was “interesting” and that talk of “around 1,000 jobs” would bring opportunities to the region.<\/p>\n
Cr Smith said the data centre was not yet a “done deal” with the application still before the council’s planning team.<\/p>\n
Anthropic will be required to invest in local communities and hire an engagement manager to ensure residents’ and councils’ concerns are heard.<\/p>\n
It is understood that Anthropic would cover the full cost of connecting to the grid, including any network updates required.<\/p>\n
The AI giant has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AI giant Anthropic has signed its first deal in Australia to use a $32 billion data centre hub…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[256,2729,460702,10166,463145,43,44,94,701,41,39,42,40,463144],"class_list":["post-893896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ai","tag-anthropic","tag-dalby","tag-data-centre","tag-digital-park","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-western-downs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893896","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=893896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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