overview

Join Australia’s inaugural Australian Data Centres Power & Water Summit this 10-11 June 2025 at the Swissotel Sydney for the nation’s first dedicated conference addressing the pressing power and water challenges faced by the rapidly growing data centre sector.

As data centres expand in response to the surge in demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing, their consumption of energy and water is reaching unprecedented levels, making it critical for the industry to find sustainable solutions.

“AI is one of the biggest stories in the energy world today – but until now, policy makers and markets lacked the tools to fully understand the wide-ranging impacts,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.

“Data Centres could consume as much as 8% of the grids demand by 2030” ABC 26/07/24

“Australian data centres are estimated to consume 47 billion litres of water a year” SMH 17/08/24

With this in mind, the summit aims to explore the most urgent issues surrounding energy and water use in this booming sector.

Just some of the topics and issues that will be addressed include:

• How the exponential growth in the use of artificial intelligence and cloud computing is driving huge growth in electricity demand in the NEM. One large data centre can consume as much power as 50,000 homes.
• Co-locating data centres with wind and solar farms in the regional renewable energy zones (REZ’s), and their role in becoming an integral part of energy parks of the future
• The role of data centres in regional development including benefits for local communities
• The challenges and opportunities in rolling out new data centres in regional Australia, and the implications for water and energy usage
• Energy Resilience in security
• Energy efficiency strategies and technology solutions to minimise energy usage in the new generation of data centres
• Developing low-carbon strategies and power purchase agreements for renewable energy to power new data centres
• Data Centre operators co-investing with renewable energy developers in new wind and solar farm development
• Constructing green data centres that minimise water use, utilise recycled and treated water, and are built with sustainable building materials
• Exploring best practice with data centre infrastructure, including the latest technology solutions available that offer best practice water management solutions for data centres