Data Centres: Planning for growth amidst the AI boom

The rapid growth of data centres in Australia and the role of AI in contributing to their proliferation is a hot topic in both planning and 'mainstream' debate. The Australian Energy Market Operator reports energy use by data centres in FY 2025 was around 2% of National Energy Market use, predicted to rise to around 6% by 2029/30* Dr Bronwyn Cumbo of UTS's Transdisciplinary School and Johanna Lim from the US Studies Centre join host Bill Code to talk about some of the environmental, social and strategic considerations around planning for data centres, the so-called 'nerve centres' of our digital economy. *An earlier version of this podcast claimed a widely-reported 5% figure was cited in a recent report from Mandala Partners. This was incorrect and has been changed. Photo: Jacqueline Tyrrell