00:02Jack Tolufson takes pride in his community garden on Sydney's fringe.
00:07Pulling weeds and nurturing vegetables.
00:09But today he's tending to the urban landscape, tackling another kind of growth.
00:14This is the new data centre that they're building.
00:16My biggest concerns are probably the environmental impact.
00:20Jack's launched a grassroots campaign against a massive build on his neighbourhood's doorstep.
00:25Environmental concerns are growing across the country and new rules are on the way.
00:30We will have Australian standards for AI. They will be world's best practice.
00:36They'll make data centres minimise water use and maximise energy efficiency,
00:40but won't apply to those being built now.
00:43Australia already has an estimated 162 data centres, mostly on the East Coast.
00:49ABC analysis of planning documents and company records
00:51reveals a further 25 projects have been approved or are being built.
00:56This new generation are even bigger and use more energy,
01:00bringing online 2.9 gigawatts of computing power.
01:03That dwarfs Australia's existing capacity.
01:06Analysts say the uncertainty isn't slowing the industry down.
01:10Australia is a really attractive market for investment for data centres.
01:14The degree of debate, guideline and regulation is unlikely to deter that investment,
01:20and we certainly haven't seen that.
01:22However, not everyone's on board.
01:24The rules either have to be in place before any new centres are approved or built,
01:29or they're going to have to be retrospective.
01:32Both supporters and critics of the AI data centre boom want clear rules about development and operation.
01:38But the government's new standards won't come into effect until next year at the earliest,
01:44meaning sites like this are already too far along for the rules to apply.
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