Dr Micha Campbell3d ago

Hey Perth friends, there is a proposed data centre at Hazelmere, on the Helena River.

From a purely water perspective this seems like a bad move. Precipitation in SWWA has declined, dam inflows have declined, groundwater is over extracted, groundwater recharge has likely declined - no idea how they're planning to cool this thing, but I doubt they're going to pay to pump desal up from Kwinana...

Submissions close 30th March at 5 pm AWST. (Edit because I got the date wrong!)

#WestCoastBestCoast #WesternAustralia #Water #Sustainability #Perth

https://swanengage.swan.wa.gov.au/da-62026-data-centre

DA-6/2026 - Data Centre

Lots 14 & 15 Stirling Crescent, HAZELMERE WA 6055

Swan Engage
Show threadJono2d ago
@michcampbell Can't find anything in the attached documents that says they're going to use water cooling. The planning documents would have to mention the water supply being any greater than the 40L/s needed for fire extinguishing and shared between other developments. There also isn't anything notable about the amount of disposed water through sewerage
Show threadNot A Dropbear

@jon_dog @michcampbell Sustainability Strategy (at bottom right of screen click "See more", then it's the last document in the list) says it's a "proposed 96 MW data centre", and that it has a "target potable [Water Usage Effectiveness] of 0.1 L/kWh". It also mentions "cooling systems refrigerant use", so at least some of its cooling will be refrigerative not evaporative.

How much is 0.1 L/kWh? Convert it to 0.1 kL/MWh, and we have
96MWh/h × 0.1 kL/MWh = 9.6 kL/h
So about 2.7 L/s or not quite 10 tonnes per hour.

Mar 20 at 3:02amWeb
Show threadDr Micha Campbell2d ago
@NotADropbear @jon_dog thanks, I hadn't managed to find that :)