NSW Inquiry Warns 8 Datacentres Could Emit 6 Times State Pollution in Outage

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 3

NSW parliamentary inquiry documents showed that if eight large Sydney-basin datacentres ran backup diesel generators simultaneously, their one-hour air pollution load would be five to six times that of all NSW electricity generation and motor vehicles.
EPA modelling tied that risk to blackout scenarios, when multiple sites could switch on generators at once, while inquiry chair Abigail Boyd said rising datacentre demand was already straining the grid and could force either customer curtailments or generator use.
Data Centres Australia called the scenario an extremely rare worst case, saying generators are standby equipment used mainly for brief testing and that each site already models emissions against EPA approval criteria.
The findings land as NSW courts AI investment, having lobbied OpenAI before its Sydney office launch, while still drafting a datacentre strategy amid community concern over pollution, power demand and projects near homes and schools.