A gigawatt-scale off-grid data center campus has been proposed in Western Australia, a project that pivots from green hydrogen and ammonia to data centers.
Plans have been filed for a gigawatt-scale, off-grid data center campus in Western Australia. Gingerah Energy has submitted the Meridien Renewable Energy Hub and Data Centre to the Australian National Environmental Protection Agency's EPBC portal.
The company proposes developing the Frazier Downs pastoral lease, located about 100km (62 miles) south of Broome. The project would cover approximately 27,520 hectares and consist of a 6.7GW renewable energy hub. The hub would include around 5.2GW of solar capacity and 1.5GW of wind turbines, supported by 5GW of battery energy storage and roughly 1.5GW of natural gas firming capacity. This would power a 1GW data center campus and on-site substations.
The first stage, with up to 240MW of IT load, is expected to be built and commissioned progressively over two to three years. Construction could reportedly begin in 2029, with full build-out targeted for 2038. The data centers would use closed-loop cooling to reduce water consumption.
"Project Meridien has the potential to become Western Australia's most significant near-term sustainable AI campus, combining gigawatt-scale data center capacity with dedicated renewable energy infrastructure and potentially the lowest latency connectivity to Singapore of any location in Australia," said Gingerah Energy founder and CEO Jap van Hattum. "Our proposition is not to finance and build a multibillion-dollar development ourselves, but to establish an investment-ready infrastructure platform bringing together specialist energy providers, data center developers and anchor customers."
Gingerah Energy is a joint venture whose partners include Longreach Capital Investment, the Karajarri Traditional Lands Association (KTLA), the registered native title body for the Karajarri people, and Fugro Exploration, the Australian arm of Dutch geodata company Fugro.
The Karajarri people own the land on which the project is planned. Two years ago, Gingerah Energy entered into an Indigenous Land Use Agreement for the site. The land was previously earmarked for a large-scale, renewables-based green hydrogen and ammonia project, with Gingerah having planned to include geothermal power generation capacity.