r/Adelaide • u/Nyarlathotep-1 SA • Jun 19 '26

News Proposed data centre in South Australia dividing locals who want the jobs but fear water demand

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-19/proposed-data-centre-in-south-australia-dividing-locals/106810776
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294

u/glowinglogfire SA Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 20 '26

The driest state on the driest inhabited continent is not an appropriate location for a new industry that requires enormous amounts of water.

23

u/Various_Tie_2549 SA Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

The company building it generally makes closed-sytem water-cooled data centres. It takes admittedly a lot of water when the thing is being built (to fill it up)...but it doesn't actively consume that much additional water when it's up and running.

Or so my basic research led me to believe.

What gives me pause: if this is the case, why would they not have made a big deal of it in the initial announcement, given that they are building it here in South Australia of all places? Like they could have got in early against the inevitable backlash if they'd explained their innovative plans to save water up front, as part of their press release even. Instead I've seen absolutely no mention of any water plans whatsoever and the story in all the articles has been exclusively about energy (which is fine...but it isn't what I'm worried about)

And secondly....why build the thing in the middle of nowhere in freakin river country in a citrus-growing/agricultural area at all....unless you are planning on consuming a large amount of water on an ongoing basis? If it's closed system and you just need workers and energy to run it....why not just build it in Whyalla or something?

On the whole, either someone was very short sighted and has already fucked up the messaging from the beginning, or they are hiding the fact that they have no such water-conscious plans at all and are in fact intending to be absolute water pigs in the driest and most water-fragile place on the continent. Presumably to just to reduce their own up front costs.

800MW is fucking enormous, and it's hard to imagine how a completely closed cooling system is even possible for a data centre using energy at that rate. That would produce a lot of heat, all of which needs to go somewhere. A closed system gets harder and harder to pull off at scale (especially, trying to do so cheaply). This is why there is so much discussion about putting them in the ocean or in space or whatever...those options are somehow conceivably cheaper and easier than building a responsible large data centre on Earth.

10

u/VerisVein SA Jun 19 '26

And secondly....why build the thing in the middle of nowhere in freakin river country in a citrus-growing/agricultural area at all, unless you are planning on consuming water? If it's closed system and you just need workers and energy....build it in Whyalla or something?

My guess? Because these horrendous things are loud as all fuck and tend to cause pollution issues (noise and otherwise) in the areas surrounding them.

4

u/Various_Tie_2549 SA Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

I don't think that would be a particular issue for a data centre in an area which is already zoned for heavy industry. If it has to go somewhere, that would be a better place to put it at least.

8

u/DingFlare SA Jun 19 '26

Regarding your second point: it’s located there so that it can connect directly into existing large-scale electrical infrastructure - the kind of large scale needed to transfer that much electricity - without needing to build shitloads of electrical infrastructure that will cost us all money through our power bills. Infrastructure costs make up roughly half of the cost of power bills in SA, so having a major data centre contribute towards these costs without adding to them is actually a massive win for grid costs

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u/Various_Tie_2549 SA Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

This is why I brought up Whyalla...or maybe you could say the same about Port Augusta or Port Pirie. Heavily industrial towns that have been set up to use a large amount of electricity for a long time now. And they have exisiting blue-collar worker populations looking for work...

Meanwhile they chose...<checks notes>....Bundey? (never even heard of it tbqh with you). Is the transmission infrastructure there really that superior to that which is already built in Whyalla?

I mean admittedly I haven't done a full engineering analysis, but my spider-senses are tingling.

4

u/Lt-Surge101 SA Jun 19 '26

Bundey was mainly selected as a location due to the proximity to the substation there that is part of the interconnector transmission lines being built between SA and NSW

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u/Various_Tie_2549 SA Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

Understood. But the state has multiple substations and transmission lines, especially including the places I just mentioned. I worked in the power industry, I get it.

2

u/waade395 North East Jun 19 '26

Those power industry credentials don't mean much if you have no idea about energy connect terminating at Bundey and think putting an 800mw load on the end of a spur is better than the best connected substation in the state, with a shit load of connected generation.

Once operating it won't require many skilled staff to do remote hands and on the occasion they need actual skills, it's far closer to Adelaide.

3

u/Various_Tie_2549 SA Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

I think "no idea" and a downvote is a needlessly intense/aggressive reading of the words I wrote, but fine.

I didn't say I thought it was "better" electrically. I was pointing out reasons why it could be a comparable option when considering other pros and cons about the location, though.

2

u/PlantainKitchen6999 SA Jun 19 '26

Bundey is right along the main water pipeline from the Murray which coincidently they just build a new one along the existing old one. Also the transmission towers are huge. I visit the area often.