Energy North has abandoned the target start date for one of Australia’s largest planned data centres after the Northern Territory environment regulator said it needed more time to determine the project’s environmental requirements.
The company had listed June 28, 2028, as the indicative date for delivering first power at Project Ares, a proposed data centre campus on a cattle ranch in Australia’s remote north. Energy North vice president of project development Daniel Hunter said the company was no longer working to that schedule and would provide new timing after the regulator defines the requirements for an environmental impact statement.
The Northern Territory regulator suspended its seven-week decision period in an October 7 ruling while it seeks advice from the federal government, which is developing policy expectations for data centres and artificial-intelligence infrastructure. The regulator did not provide a new timeframe.
Project Ares would have a capacity of 1 gigawatt and cover 191 square kilometres. Plans include a gas turbine system, a solar farm, an airstrip and accommodation for up to 4,300 construction workers. The regulator identified 10 potential impacts, including pressure on water systems and disruption to Aboriginal sacred sites, and said it had low confidence in the effectiveness of the proposed measures to manage potentially significant effects.
The delay highlights the challenges facing Australia’s plans to attract large-scale AI infrastructure to the Northern Territory. The region is promoting its extensive land area, strong solar resources and shale gas reserves as advantages for data centre development, while projects are expected to combine renewable energy with on-site gas generation rather than relying on the territory’s electricity grid.
Energy North’s project is four times the size of a Melbourne data centre expansion recently delayed by NextDC over energy-supply concerns, and 10 times the size of a Sydney project abandoned by Goodman after resident opposition, according to the report.
Urban planner Adam Beck said existing planning frameworks were not designed for proposals of this scale and warned that community acceptance could also affect project schedules. The Northern Territory Environment Protection Agency’s concerns add to questions about water use, land impacts and consultation requirements.
Aboriginal consultation can require travel, interpreters and repeated visits in a territory where about a quarter of the population is Indigenous. The Northern Land Council said in a submission to a federal inquiry that speeding up the process would not necessarily produce prompt consent.
A separate proposal by Beetaloo Energy near Darwin would be twice the size of Project Ares and require up to 400 terajoules of gas per day, based on the company’s estimate. Together, the two projects would represent 3 gigawatts of capacity, roughly 10 times the peak demand of the Northern Territory’s grid. Details of 10 other data centre-related projects being discussed by the territory government have not been disclosed.
Sources: Investing.com News.