news
The Guardian
December 2nd, 2025 at 2:00 PM

Datacentres demand huge amounts of electricity. Could they derail Australia’s net zero ambitions?

Banks of servers operating 24/7 generate massive amounts of heat, requiring power to run and cool them Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Datacentre power demand in Australia could triple in five years and is forecast to exceed by 2030 the energy used by electric vehicles. Datacentres now draw about 2% of electricity from the National Grid, about 4 terawatt hours of power. The Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) expects that share to rise rapidly – growing 25% year-on-year – to reach 12TWh, or 6% of grid demand, by 2030, and 12% by 2050. Continue reading...

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Canonical link: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/03/datacentres-demand-huge-amounts-of-electricity-could-they-derail-australias-net-zero-ambitions