Tech giants warn Labor they need more than just sun, wind and batteries
Microsoft, Google and Amazon are urging the Albanese government to speed up the delivery of energy-storage projects that can guarantee around-the-clock power for data centres, after the Coalition's decisive election defeat shut the door on nuclear reactors.
A boom in the number of data centres – buildings filled with racks of servers that store and transmit data for everyday online tasks – looms as one of the next tests for Australia's shift from coal to renewable energy because they require huge amounts of power to run and keep cool, meaning extra strain on the grid.
As artificial intelligence applications become more widely used by the public and organisations, power usage to keep the data centres running continues to increase.
Microsoft, Google and Amazon are among a group of industrial power users and clean energy developers stepping up their calls for the federal government's ambitious target of an 82 per cent renewable grid to be accompanied by another target: one aimed at fast-tracking projects with the capacity to store surplus power from the growing number of solar panels and wind turbines to cover the gaps when it's not sunny or windy.
In a letter to Energy Minister Chris Bowen, the international group, known as the Long Duration Energy Storage Council, warns that a renewable grid is 'only as strong as its ability to deliver power when and where it's needed'.
'By embedding storage into the heart of the grid, Australia can move from variable renewable supply to 24/7 renewable energy on which communities and industries can rely across days, weeks and seasons,' said the letter, seen by this masthead.
Microsoft and other technology companies in the United States are increasingly turning to nuclear power to help secure the 24/7 electricity they need to ensure reliable supply for their new data centres while maintaining their net zero emissions targets.
Facebook and Instagram's parent company, Meta, last week signed a 20-year deal to secure nuclear power to help meet surging demand for AI, and a United Nations report out last Thursday said electricity consumption by data centres increased by 12 per cent each year from 2017 to 2023, four times faster than global electricity growth.
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