{"id":23610,"date":"2026-06-21T15:37:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/21\/thirsty-and-power-hungry-australia-is-in-the-middle-of-a-datacentre-boom-but-not-everyone-is-convinced\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T15:37:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:37:20","slug":"thirsty-and-power-hungry-australia-is-in-the-middle-of-a-datacentre-boom-but-not-everyone-is-convinced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/21\/thirsty-and-power-hungry-australia-is-in-the-middle-of-a-datacentre-boom-but-not-everyone-is-convinced\/","title":{"rendered":"Thirsty and power hungry: Australia is in the middle of a datacentre boom \u2013 but not everyone is convinced"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>They\u2019re a key part of the digital and AI economy, but they come at a high environmental cost and offer few operational jobs<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Get our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl\">breaking news email<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/app.adjust.com\/w4u7jx3\">free app<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/series\/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl\">daily news podcast<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On Mamre Road, in Sydney\u2019s outer western suburbs, there are plans to build a \u201chyperscale\u201d datacentre that will be one of the biggest in the world.<\/p>\n<p>If approved, the 52-hectare site will include six four-storey buildings that stretch 40 metres high, alongside 936 cooling units and 852 diesel backup power generators.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jun\/22\/australia-ai-datacentre-boom-environmental-impacts-climate-how-sustainable-is-it-artificial-intelligence\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/fa773b86704c83641347ae3b01647f734b82d62f\/0_0_3333_2667\/master\/3333.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=e38c74f639ce136bba4a640b8b801536\" title=\"Thirsty and power hungry: Australia is in the middle of a datacentre boom \u2013 but not everyone is convinced\" \/>They\u2019re a key part of the digital and AI economy, but they come at a high environmental cost and offer few operational jobs<br \/>\nGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast<br \/>\nOn Mamre Road, in Sydney\u2019s outer western suburbs, there are plans to build a \u201chyperscale\u201d datacentre that will be one of the biggest in the world.<br \/>\nIf approved, the 52-hectare site will include six four-storey buildings that stretch 40 metres high, alongside 936 cooling units and 852 diesel backup power generators. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They\u2019re a key part of the digital and AI economy, but they come at a high environmental cost and offer few operational jobs Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast On Mamre Road, in Sydney\u2019s outer western suburbs, there are plans to build a \u201chyperscale\u201d datacentre that will be one of &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/21\/thirsty-and-power-hungry-australia-is-in-the-middle-of-a-datacentre-boom-but-not-everyone-is-convinced\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Thirsty and power hungry: Australia is in the middle of a datacentre boom \u2013 but not everyone is convinced<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":23611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23610"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}