Australian Data Center: Timeline Scrapped After Regulator Delay

Energy North has dropped its target start date for one of Australia's largest planned data centers. The developer scrapped a June 28, 2028, milestone after a local regulator announced it needed more time to establish environmental rules.

The setback affects a project located on a cattle ranch in the remote Northern Territory, 683 kilometers from the nearest city. The facility is designed to be powered by gas and solar energy.

In regulatory filings submitted four months ago, Energy North listed the late June 2028 date as a target for first power. That timeline was tied to a seven-week deadline for the Northern Territory environment regulator to decide on project hurdles.

On October 7, the regulator suspended that deadline. It stated it would seek advice from the federal government, which is currently developing policy expectations for data centers and AI infrastructure. The regulator did not provide a new timeframe for its decision.

Daniel Hunter, vice president of project development at Energy North, confirmed the change in an email to Reuters. "The June 2028 date in our referral was an indicative schedule at the time of lodgement, and we're no longer working to it," Hunter said.

The project, named Project Ares, is planned to reach a capacity of 1 gigawatt. It is four times the size of a delayed expansion in Melbourne and ten times the size of a project pulled in Sydney due to resident pushback. The campus design includes a gas turbine system, a solar farm, an airstrip, and accommodation for 4,300 construction workers.

The Territory's Environment Protection Agency issued a warning regarding ten potential impacts. These include straining water systems and disrupting Aboriginal sacred sites. The agency noted a low level of confidence in the effectiveness of proposed measures to manage significant impacts.

The delay illustrates the challenges facing data center ambitions in the isolated north. The territory has sought to attract investment by offering vast uninhabited land, high solar exposure, and a newly opened shale gas reserve. The region has 260,000 residents in an area twice the size of Texas.

Beetaloo Energy has also proposed a data center near Darwin. This project would be twice the size of Project Ares and use up to 400 terajoules of gas a day. That volume is ten times the gas flowing from the Beetaloo Basin's only producing project, Shenandoah South.

Together, these two data centers would total 3 gigawatts, which is about ten times the peak demand on the entire Territory's grid. Both companies plan to combine renewables with their own gas-fired power to bypass the grid.

Adam Beck, an urban planner who advises governments on infrastructure projects, said the territory's planning frameworks were not designed for proposals of this scale. "Tearing up timelines is kind of standard process, but I'm not going to discount the lack of social license," Beck said.

The Northern Land Council stated that expediting Aboriginal consultation does not produce prompt consent. The council noted that the process requires travel, interpreters, and repeat visits in a territory where a quarter of the population is Indigenous. Robyn Cahill, the Territory business minister, did not respond to requests for comment regarding the delay.