Australia: Data centre developer drops 2028 timeline

Energy North, the developer behind one of Australia's largest planned data centres, removed its target start date from project filings. The company had previously listed June 28, 2028, as the date for its first power connection. That date is no longer part of the official schedule.

The change follows a ruling by the Northern Territory environment regulator on October 7. The agency suspended its standard seven-week deadline for deciding what environmental hurdles the project must meet. It stated it needs more time to seek advice from the federal government, which is developing policy expectations for AI infrastructure developers. The regulator did not provide a new timeframe for its decision.

Daniel Hunter, vice president of project development at Energy North, confirmed the shift in an email. He described the June 2028 date as an indicative schedule from the time of lodgement. The team is no longer working to that timeline. Hunter said the project team remains unfazed and will confirm new timing once the regulator sets out terms for an environmental impact statement.

The proposed site is a cattle ranch in the remote north, 683 kilometers from the nearest city. The campus covers 191 square kilometers and includes a gas turbine system, a solar farm, an airstrip, and accommodation for 4,300 construction workers. The facility is designed to reach a capacity of one gigawatt. That is four times the size of a delayed expansion in Melbourne and ten times the size of a project pulled in Sydney.

The Northern Territory Environment Protection Agency outlined ten potential impacts in its ruling. These include straining water systems and disrupting Aboriginal sacred sites. The agency expressed low confidence in the effectiveness of the proposed measures to manage these effects. The territory has positioned itself as a destination for AI investment, citing vast uninhabited land and a newly opened shale gas reserve.

Beetaloo Energy has also proposed a data centre near Darwin. That project would be twice the size of Energy North's proposal and could use up to 400 terajoules of gas daily. Together, these two projects would total three gigawatts, roughly ten times the peak demand on the entire territory's grid. Northern Territory business minister Robyn Cahill did not respond to requests for comment regarding the developments.