Sydney councils fear new datacentres could cause blackouts, block housing and affect locals’ health | Sydney
A New South Wales investigation has heard data center developments are eliminating opportunities for housing and job-rich industries across Sydney, with one local council reporting an increase in power outages linked to industry expansion.
Many Sydney councils, all facing data center developments, have raised concerns about health, environmental and amenity impacts on local communities in submissions to the state’s data center inquiry.
Lane Cove Council on Sydney’s north shore has expressed “concerns about increased power outages and blackouts in Lane Cove West since the expansion of data centres”.
The council said noise produced by data centers could also be “offensive and disruptive” to local people and wildlife, raising health concerns about the industry’s use of backup diesel generators.
The City of Ryde, also in northern Sydney, said a cluster of twelve data centers in Macquarie Park “competes directly with residential development opportunities in locations offering strong public transport access”.
A proposed development on Lane Cove Road is said to be within walking distance of Macquarie Park tube station, an area that could host new homes in a “well-serviced, strategically located area”.
Additional pressure on local water supplies from data centers is also delaying some already approved housing projects “because Sydney Water cannot meet the required water supply capacity”, according to the council’s presentation.
Penrith city council has called on the state government to pause further approvals “until both the short- and long-term implications for utilities (water and electricity) NSW are fully understood”.
The Western Sydney Organization of District Councils said the cumulative impact of noise, heat and emissions from data center clusters were rarely taken into account in approvals of individual projects. “These impacts are significant on a broad scale, particularly in heat-sensitive communities in western Sydney.
“Without coordinated planning, [datacentre] “There are growth risks that increase existing pressures on electricity networks, water systems and the local environment in Western Sydney and constrain the services needed to deliver much-needed housing and infrastructure in the region.”
City of Sydney deputy mayor Jess Miller said on the NSW planning portal that each proposed data centre, if built, would require around 4.4 gigawatts of energy – equivalent to the electricity needs of 10 million households – and consume 25% of the city’s drinking water by 2035.
The additional water use required is estimated to be 250 million liters per day by 2035; This is equivalent to the total production capacity of the Sydney Desalination Plant. A statement from the desalination plant said capacity could be doubled to help mitigate water supply risks.
Data Centers Australia said the industry has cooling-related electricity and water requirements. “As with all electrical devices (and the digital services we all use), computing creates heat.”
The peak body said developers were already investing in power purchase agreements for renewable energy and were keen to shift the sector’s reliance on drinking water, but cited cost and supply barriers.
“Not all water is the same. Non-potable recycled water represents an opportunity for data centres, but we need Sydney Water to deliver recycled water at an affordable price,” the industry body said in a statement.
“There are things we need to do to ensure we have energy availability on the grid to support increased capacity, but we shouldn’t panic – we have a window of opportunity to address system weaknesses, such as building more transmission and more hardening such as battery storage.”
The industry has faced increasing pressure to address concerns about energy and water use, with the federal government issuing a series of regulations. “national data center expectations” In March. Impacts on housing, land use and local communities have been identified as the focus of the NSW inquiry, with public hearings planned for May.
Sydney Committee says state is lacking “comprehensive spatial strategy for data center deployment” and there was a growing call from communities and local councils to ensure data centers are good corporate citizens.
“The prevailing narrative from many of these stakeholders is that data centers are extractive, taking away more than they give when it comes to energy, water and land.”
