Minister says that Australia's data centres should be powered by renewable energy in the majority.

Chris Bowen, Australia's energy minister, said that the Northern Territory's plans to use large-scale shale-gas resources to power data centers would be in conflict with proposed national standards. This cast doubt on the Territory's ambitious plan to attract multibillion-dollar tech investments.

Canberra's recent proposed policy mandates that data centres build renewable sources of power instead of pulling electricity from grid. Queensland and the Northern Territory both support gas-fired energy for data centres.

Bowen responded to a query by saying that if a data center is only using gas, then it would not meet minimum national standards and it wouldn't be allowed register.

Canberra's new regulations envisage issuing renewable energy certificates to centres.

He spoke after a National Press Club speech in which he had announced a "new rooftop solar scheme".

Last month, the Northern Territory awarded 185 ha (457 acres), near Darwin's capital city, to Beetaloo Digital for the development of a 2 gigawatt data center. Beetaloo Energy will provide the power to the centre using shale-gas resources that it develops in the Beetaloo subbasin. The company estimated that to generate 1 gigawatt would require 200 terajoules per day of gas.

Shell's announcement on Wednesday of the development of coal seam gas in Queensland was expected to generate 84 TJ per day.

A Beetaloo spokesperson said that the project could complement Darwin Energy Hub's large-scale solar power generation and battery storage plans by providing a reliable generation capacity. However, they declined to comment on Bowen's comments. He didn't give any guidance about the proportion of renewable energy to gas that was planned.

Beetaloo?said that its data centre would attract private investment of up to A$40 Billion ($28.17 Billion).

Climate Change Authority reports have already suggested that Australia might not be able to meet its 2035 goal of a 62% - 70% reduction in carbon emissions compared to 2005 levels without taking into account large new projects.

Bowen said that gas could play a part in "firming up" or supplying intermittent renewable energy, but the gas power sector should be largely dormant.

I think it's a pretty reasonable idea.

(source: Reuters)