The cloud may sound weightless, but keeping it running requires an extraordinary amount of power, water and land. On Sydney’s Lower North Shore, that digital world is becoming increasingly tangible as data centres multiply around Lane Cove.
One of them is Goodman Group’s proposed Project Mars at 12 Mars Road, Lane Cove West, a new data centre planned to operate around the clock with a power consumption of approximately 90 megawatts. The proposal is currently at the Response to Submissions stage of the NSW planning process, after attracting 374 submissions, 358 of which were objections.
In Short
- Goodman Group's 'Project Mars' proposes a 90-megawatt data centre at 12 Mars Road, Lane Cove West, which has already drawn 358 community objections.
- As a State Significant Development, the final approval rests with the NSW Government rather than Lane Cove Council.
- The Climate Council warns that surging data centre power demands could increase NSW wholesale electricity prices by up to 26 per cent by 2035 without mandatory renewable energy standards.
- A new NSW Data Centre Policy Framework has been introduced to help manage the industry's massive water and energy consumption across the region.
Project Mars is part of a growing local cluster. Lane Cove Council already houses one data centre in Lane Cove West, with another three proposed. As a State Significant Development, the approval for Project Mars will ultimately be determined by the NSW Government rather than Council.
The proposals come as the NSW Government introduces a new Data Centre Policy Framework aimed at encouraging investment while ensuring communities do not bear the costs of the industry’s expansion. The framework sets six principles, including world-class energy, water and environmental standards and appropriate contributions towards the infrastructure needed to support growth.
The scale of the industry’s energy demand is significant. According to figures supplied by the Climate Council, data centres currently account for around four per cent of NSW’s electricity use, a share forecast to rise to 11 per cent by 2030.
Climate Council senior researcher, Genevieve Henderson welcomed the direction of the NSW framework but said guidelines alone were not enough.
“Protecting households from rising costs now depends on the Albanese Government delivering strong, mandatory national standards, which will work alongside NSW’s framework,” Ms Henderson said.
The Climate Council says modelling indicates that without new renewable energy and storage to meet growing data-centre demand, NSW wholesale electricity prices could be up to 26 per cent higher than the baseline by 2035.
“Protecting households from higher bills and more climate pollution can’t rely on voluntary industry action — it has to be mandatory,” Ms Henderson said.
Goodman supports the NSW framework. Goodman’s Marketing and Communications General Manager, Kerrie Muskens said clear policy settings could help ensure digital infrastructure was located appropriately, supported by adequate infrastructure and assessed against economic, environmental and community considerations.
On concerns about Project Mars’ impact on surrounding residents, Ms Muskens said the project had undergone detailed technical assessments.
“These assessments have helped shape the design of the project and include noise attenuation measures of equipment, building elements and orientation that provide line of sight noise barriers to sensitive receivers,” she said.
Goodman also said Project Mars would create jobs during construction and specialised technical roles once operational, alongside proposed community contributions and biodiversity measures.
Electricity is not the only resource under scrutiny here. The NSW framework also addresses the industry’s growing demand for water, with the government commissioning IPART to examine water pricing and how infrastructure costs should be recovered.
For Lane Cove residents, Project Mars brings a much bigger question close to home: as the infrastructure behind our increasingly digital lives moves into physical communities, who should bear the costs that come with it?