00:02When Charlotte moved to Lane Cove West eight years ago, she was hoping for a leafy change.
00:08What she didn't bargain for was a front row seat to the AI boom in the form of data centres.
00:15It beggars belief. I understand that we have a need for data centres.
00:20I'm not against data centres, but it's just the positioning.
00:23A three storey data centre owned by Goodman has been proposed for industrial land behind Charlotte's house,
00:30just metres away from a primary school park and Lane Cove River.
00:35It's among five centres either built, approved or in planning stages in Lane Cove.
00:41It's ugly. It's noisy. It's just a low level humming consistently.
00:46So people say it's a bit like a fridge.
00:48I can tell you the one at the other end of this data centre is not like a fridge.
00:52It is way, way louder.
00:54Data centres are large buildings full of servers and IT infrastructure that handle our online lives.
01:01They power apps like ChatGPT, Google Maps, even public transport.
01:06There are 162 nationwide, but the industry projects that figure will double by 2030.
01:13More than half are in Sydney.
01:15Australia is an attractive market.
01:18We have this abundance of renewable energy that makes us very attractive.
01:22Taking clean energy and turning that into AI.
01:26In Rydes Macquarie Park, the data centre arms race is well afoot.
01:31It's on track to become one of the largest hubs in the country, but there are growing pains.
01:36Planning bypasses the local council, which is warning the suburb risks becoming a data centre wasteland.
01:43There's large tracts of land of thousands of square metres that would otherwise be commercial and could otherwise employ hundreds
01:51of people or possibly thousands of people.
01:53Demand on water supply is a looming concern.
01:57Rydes Council says just one proposed development could use the equivalent of one and a half Olympic pools of water
02:04per day.
02:05Open AI, which owns ChatGPT, says one search consumes about a fifteenth of a teaspoon of water.
02:12But with millions of searches happening every day, well the numbers start to add up.
02:17By 2035, Sydney Water estimates data centres could consume a quarter of the city's annual drinking water supply.
02:25The Albanese government is introducing mandatory standards, meaning future centres will need to secure their own power and water supply.
02:34But with no firm deadline to legislate the changes, residents like Charlotte fear time is running out.
02:41I agree they have got to be built somewhere, but the somewhere should not be so close to suburban homes
02:47and a primary school.
02:53atifical.
02:55You
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