We conduct public interest financial analysis on the most profound economic transformation since the industrial revolution: the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.

A coalition of energy and environment groups, including the Clean Energy Council, Electrical Trades Union, Australian Conservation Foundation and Climate Energy Finance, proposed a set of “public interest principles for datacentres” that include investing in new renewable energy and using water responsibly. “If you want to build a datacentre, you should have to build the renewables and water recycling to power it,” the ACF chief executive, Adam Bandt, said. “Big tech corporations should be forced to do their fair share so they don’t drain our resources.” The Australian Energy Council says key policy questions still need answering: will datacentres need to be 100% renewable? And will that be based on total demand, or take into account when the electricity is being used? Read more

Tim Buckley, CEO of Climate Energy Finance, says Australia should welcome data centre investment linked to AI and renewables, but […] Read more

Demand is expected to balloon from 1.35 gigawatts now to between 5-8 GW by 2035 on projections prepared in a Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Baringa report. New approvals should come with clear community benefits, Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley said. “After all, the data centres can only be built leveraging the existing publicly funded water and grid infrastructure we have all paid for,” Mr Buckley said. Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said data centres should be building new solar and wind capacity and have “flexibility and redundancy” built in to protect the network. Read more