SunCable eyes onshore data centres as Labor ramps up AI pitch
The ambitious clean energy project has encountered several difficulties but may now be primed to capitalise on a government push to attract AI data centres to Australia.
The $40 billion solar infrastructure project SunCable insists it is still committed to exporting energy to Singapore, amid mounting industry speculation it could pivot to supplying onshore data centres as the government pushes to turn Australia into an AI hub.
The ambitious, Mike Cannon-Brookes backed renewable energy export project, which has encountered several difficulties over the past two years, told Capital Brief that "supplying renewable electricity to partner nations in Southeast Asia remains a core element of the project."
But it added that it "can enable Australia's strategic opportunity to become a global leader in AI data centres, powered by renewable energy," and that "from the outset, data centres in both Australia and Singapore were identified as key potential offtakers due to their substantial demand for renewable energy."
Data centres have become a hot topic for national debate after Cannon-Brookes' Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, who now heads the Tech Council, said Australia could become a regional hub for data centres used to train AI models. He called for urgent changes to copyright laws and a streamlining of other regulations to further that process.
