<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/huge-data-centres-queue-to-join-australias-grid-but-not-where-wind-and-solar-industry-wants-them/>
"Wind and solar project developers have been eyeing data centres as a potential
solution to the grid constraints that have emerged as a barrier to their
projects, but one data company says they may not the solution to Australia’s
transmission problems.
Transmission company Ausnet says it has received load enquiries for more than 8
GW of data centre capacity, some of them proposing loads bigger than the
country’s aluminium smelters, the current largest energy users in Australia.
But the data centre companies don’t seem willing to site their projects in the
middle of renewable energy zones, as some in the wind and solar industry hope.
Next DC’s head of energy Shayne Kumar says state and federal policy makers, and
developers, are asking “almost on a weekly basis” whether the heavy electricity
users can be homed in renewable energy zones (REZs).
He admits it looks like an elegant solution to reducing economic curtailment,
grid congestion, and marginal loss factors while radically expanding how much
generation can be loaded into an area.
But like electric cars, which consumers want to use as cars while energy
insiders want to turn into grid stabilisers via vehicle-to-grid charging, using
data centres as pseudo-energy market players is a trade off the owners are
unwilling to take.
“Look at what a data centre is,” Kumar told the CEDA Climate and Energy Summit
last week.
“It’s a backbone for our modern economy, and everyone hates to wait for that
spinning wheel that comes up when you are loading Netflix or YouTube. It’s just
the worst. And when it’s doing that, it’s going through a data center.
“We can’t have data centres in renewable energy zones simply because we need
them closer to cities, because we don’t want to wait for that spinning wheel.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
