SA pushes for AI data centres as industry says it’s not asking for subsidies
- The South Australian government has unveiled a strategy to attract billions of dollars in AI data centre investment, aiming to boost regional jobs and position the state as a major hub for the growing industry.
- New legislation is planned to regulate the sector, including streamlining approvals while ensuring energy use does not raise household power costs and infrastructure is appropriately managed.
- Concerns have been raised about the heavy electricity and water demands of data centres, with debate over environmental impacts, resource use, and how developments should be balanced with community and industry needs.
The South Australian government is pushing for the state to become home to billions of dollars’ worth of artificial intelligence (AI) data centres, but concerns have already been raised about the impact on energy and water supply.
Premier Peter Malinauskas has released a data centre strategy and plans to introduce new laws into state parliament to regulate the industry.
He hopes AI companies could invest billions in building data centres in South Australia and create hundreds of ongoing jobs, particularly in areas like the state’s Mid North and Whyalla, where there are large electricity transmission lines, wind farms and a pipe delivering fresh water from the River Murray to households and industry.
“This is a genuine economic opportunity for young people in regional South Australia and, if we do it right, not recklessly … it should be an uplift for everybody rather than at the expense of anyone,” Mr Malinauskas told 891 ABC Adelaide.
AI data centres are made up of banks of computer servers that are used to run large language model services like ChatGPT.
They need a large amount of electricity to run the computers as well as water to keep them cool.
The strategy aims to capitalise on the large proportion of renewable …
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Original article and photo by "ABC News"
