AI Factories Planned for Tasmania Spark Community and Regulatory Concerns

An artificial intelligence company wants to build three AI factories in Tasmania, but questions are being raised about the impacts and benefits for the state.

Firmus Technologies is constructing its Project Southgate AI factory in the Launceston suburb of St Leonards and has lodged development applications to build facilities at Bell Bay in the state's north and Wesley Vale in the north-west.

But some residents feel like they have not been adequately consulted, and are worried about water and energy use — matters Firmus has sought to address.

University of Technology Sydney AI futures researcher Bronwyn Cumbo said it was not a question of whether Australia needed these facilities.

"It's more about how many we have and what these data centres and AI factories are being used for," said Dr Cumbo.

In Perth, a data centre proposal was abandoned after community opposition.

Dr Cumbo said it appeared that some data centre companies were not worried about social licence.

"You can see in the way that they actually engage with communities — some companies are better than others — but ultimately, they will stick with the legislation and follow the rules," she said.

After backlash to its proposed Bell Bay facility, Firmus announced it would be holding drop-in sessions and webinars for the local community.

"We want to get together with the community and present and explain what we're doing," Firmus co-CEO Tim Rosenfield told 936 ABC Radio Hobart on Thursday.

Community concerns 'not creating much change'

The Tasmanian government has backed the federal government's expectations of data centres, but the Greens want a moratorium on new data centres until state-specific regulation is put in place.

The Greens are pushing for large AI developments to be subject to parliamentary oversight and required to regularly report their energy and water consumption.

Tasmanian Greens technology spokesperson Tabatha Badger said the community felt left in the dark.

"They don't have the answers, and they don't have the confidence they are going to have a fair say in what the future of AI and data centres in their state looks like," she said.

Dr Cumbo also wants to see state governments regulate data centre developments, describing "an absence of strategic planning" across the country.

"Early communications that could shape where these things are located, how they're designed, are being overlooked," she said.

Dr Cumbo said while nearby residents' concerns around things like noise from data centres could be framed as "nimbyism", there were legitimate questions to be asked.

"They also produce low-frequency vibrations, which you can't hear, but can be quite damaging, particularly to the environment and to people," she said.

Questions remain around energy plans

Amr Omar, who researches the sustainability of data centres' water and energy use at the University of New South Wales, urged AI companies to be up-front about their energy and water use.

"Part of my job is looking at all of these different data centres and their efficiency metrics and so on and so forth, but it's not really clear to me how they report the numbers," Dr Omar said.

Tasmanian Energy Minister Nick Duigan has said Firmus would require more than 400 megawatts to power its three proposed sites, which would make it the state's biggest power user.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff is not concerned about the company's power requirements.

"We have the power to be able to ensure that these AI data centres can go ahead and provide investment, local jobs, opportunity throughout their supply chain as well," he said on Thursday.

"What they're also doing is paying more for their power than our major industrials currently are — that helps Tasmania's bottom line.

Firmus has pledged to initially match its power use with renewable energy credits, and says it will finance its energy suppliers to build double the amount of renewable energy that it uses.

The company said it had made a deal to do that in South Australia and was in the process of negotiating one with Hydro Tasmania, the state-owned hydro-electricity generation company.

Ms Badger questioned "whether that's even within Hydro's remit".

She also struggles to see renewable energy developments getting up before the company's AI factories begin operating.

"If they're going to be planning new renewable projects to come online within that time frame, the discussions, the applications and the process for that needs to be underway as well — and they're not," she said.