Canberra's data centers hum with activity, more on the horizon

Canberra is already a hub for data centers, with 15 facilities operating across industrial estates and suburban areas, and more potentially on the way. The Australian Capital Territory government has received proposals for a new data center in Beard and an extension in Hume.

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Canberra is great because it's actually quite cool and cold in winter. But even during summer, it actually gets very pleasant in the evenings because of the altitude.

CDC Data Centres, a major operator in the region, runs eight facilities across four campuses in the ACT and employs around 250 people. CEO Greg Boorer established the company's first Canberra data center in 2007. He points to the city's cool climate, proximity to the federal government, and a 100% renewable energy supply as key attractions for the industry.

"Canberra is great because it's actually quite cool and cold in winter," Boorer said. "But even during summer, it actually gets very pleasant in the evenings because of the altitude." He added that the city offers all necessary ingredients for success: energy, power, data connectivity, and an educated workforce. Customers are drawn to the immediate availability of renewable energy for their operations.

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So in a year-round sense, it's actually the coldest place in Australia that has all of the ingredients: so the energy, the power, the data connectivity and also the educated workforce that can actually make this industry very successful.

Data centers require stable power and temperature control due to heat generated by servers. CDC's new facility in Beard will have a capacity of 40 megawatts, a significant amount compared to the ACT's peak electricity demand. While data centers traditionally consume large amounts of water for cooling, leading to protests elsewhere, ACT operators mitigate this with "closed-loop" cooling systems that don't use local water supplies and by investing in renewable energy. Boorer noted that some international developments have been poorly located or operated with a "selfish approach," failing to consider broader community benefits.

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A lot of the customers love to come to Canberra because immediately they understand that their facilities and their compute is actually powered by renewable energy out of the box.

This approach has helped ACT data centers avoid the significant community backlash seen in other parts of Australia and the world, with opposition in Canberra being notably less vocal.

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I think a lot of the outrage is justified in a lot of parts of the world.