Our data centre debate is being fought with American facts
The case against data centres in Australia is being built on US examples, even though the local industry operates on a very different scale.
In the last few months I’ve spent a lot of time with people inside Australia’s data centre industry, and many on the outside — in government, in media, in communities. The disconnect between these two groups is stark.
Inside the industry there is excitement, bordering on disbelief, at the level of opportunity. Outside it, the reaction ranges from curiosity at best through to confusion and fear.
The data centre industry needs to bring the community with us. That starts with telling our story better. More urgently, it means correcting the story being told about us. The headlines the public reads about data centres are alarming. The industry is depicted as energy vampires, water hogs and job killers.
The problem is that most of those headlines originate in the United States, where the industry is operating at a completely different scale, under completely different market rules. They are being transplanted wholesale into Australian debates as though the contexts were interchangeable.
