Developer says gigantic WA data centre will not use fracked gas

The company proposing to build a massive data centre in northern Western Australia has sought to ease concerns the facility will be powered by gas sourced through fracking.

Gingerah Energy referred its plan to build a 1,000-megawatt data centre and renewable energy hub to the Commonwealth's environmental agency last month.

The site proposed is on Karajarri country, near Broome, about 2,000 kilometres north of Perth.

Chief executive Jop van Hattum said Project Meridien, which Gingerah hopes to be delivered by 2030, would initially be powered by solar, batteries, gas, and later also by wind.

He said renewables would initially provide more than 85 per cent of the facility's total energy demand, with that figure rising as it expanded towards its full one-gigawatt capacity.

The gas used would most likely come from Karratha, Mr van Hattum said. 

"We target for that renewable energy capacity to increase to 94 per cent," he said.

Environmentalists have suggested Gingerah might source the gas it needs for the centre through fracking in the Kimberley.

While there is no ban on fracking in the region's Canning basin, no projects have received the required approvals to proceed.

Critics of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, say it is harmful due to risks involving water contamination and long-term climate impacts.

Mr van Hattum said the project's gas would be sourced from "the domestic gas market".

"As energy storage systems and technology improve and costs reduce, our preference would obviously be to be free of the gas and use those technologies to make the project fully carbon-free if we can," he added.

Concerns about fracking

Environs Kimberley director Martin Pritchard called for greater clarity on where the gas would come from.

"To say this gas would come from the domestic market leads to questions,"

he said.

"Could it come from another company that is planning to do fracking in the Kimberley? Could it come from a new conventional well that Buru Energy is working on at the moment? Could it come from Theia Energy, and are they going to want to start fracking to supply gas to this AI data centre?"

Gingerah is a joint venture between Karajarri Traditional Lands Association (KTLA), Dutch geodata company Fugro and Australian geoscience firm Longreach Capital Investment, which owns Theia Energy — a company that previously applied to drill and frack exploration wells in the Kimberley.

Grattan Institute energy expert Alison Reeve estimated the Meridien data centre would need about eight terajoules of gas a day in its initial 240-megawatt phase and about 32 terajoules at full capacity.

"All of WA consumes about 1,100 terajoules a day," she said.

"So it's probably adding maybe 1 per cent to WA's total gas demand, but it is still a lot of gas."

Ms Reeve said the project was not large enough to lead to more gas exploration or fracking in the Kimberley because the state already had enough gas to cover it.

Traditional owner confident no fracked gas will be used

KTLA director Justin King Senior said the gas needed for Meridien would "absolutely not" come from fracking.

"I say with conviction and reassure the people, our members, and the public [fracking] would never be part of the project make-up of energy," he said.

Among KTLA members, Mr King said "a small minority" were opposed to the project for several reasons, including the increase in negative sentiment towards data centres online.

"Social media plays a big part in giving out information," he said.

This month's US midterm elections put data centres in the spotlight, with voters overwhelmingly rejecting their development.

Ms Reeve said this resistance was also prevalent in Australia.

"I think the primary concern is people don't want to live next to them," she said.

"There's potentially another broader concern, which is the environmental impact — the impact on emissions, on water consumption, on how much land they take up."