Developer says gigantic WA data centre will not use fracked gas - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

A Western Australian data centre developer has stated it will not use fracked gas to power the facility. The announcement appears to be a response to environmental concerns about onshore gas extraction in the state.

Where this fits

Data centres are among the most power-hungry industrial loads Australia will deploy. They run 24/7 and cannot tolerate outages or voltage sags. A data centre that rules out gas firming is betting on renewables alone, or on a combination of renewables with battery storage, or on grid supply. That bet exposes a structural problem in Australia's energy transition: firm, dispatchable power is being squeezed out by policy and sentiment, but the grid still needs it. Gas was the firm backup that made a high-renewables grid work. Without gas, a data centre either imports unreliable power from the SWIS, or it must build its own storage, which is expensive, short-duration, and technology-locked into lithium batteries supplied by China. The alternative, firm nuclear generation, remains banned by Commonwealth law.

What it means

This decision signals that political pressure against gas will extend to industrial loads, not just electricity generation. For Australia's grid, it means firm capacity will tighten further. Large industrial users will either pay premium rates for on-site storage and renewable capacity, or they will locate offshore where firm power is available. Either way, the economy absorbs the cost of foregoing the cheapest firm power source available and the lowest-emissions firm alternative that exists.