Proposed Dalby data centre to harvest rainwater from roof

The international developer that has proposed Australia's largest data centre says it would be able to operate during even the worst droughts.

The proposed $32 billion Western Downs Digital Park in regional Queensland would consist of four data centres, the first of which has been leased by Anthropic for use as early as 2027.

Planning documents by Singapore-based developer Zerra DC said each of the four buildings planned for the Western Downs Digital Park would require 21,000 litres of water a day, equivalent to the water usage of a small shopping centre.

The company's chief data centre officer Matt Ward said modelling showed that even in 2019, when Dalby received less than 200 millimetres of rain, it would catch enough rainwater to operate.

Mr Ward said the buildings housing the data centres were "large sheds" with "35,000-odd square metres of roof space" and the facility would be entirely air-cooled and would not draw from bores or town water.

'Landlord' role on power

Mr Ward said supplying new power to the grid would be the responsibility of its artificial intelligence customers such as Anthropic, which the company has signed an agreement with.

He said Zerra DC would act like the "landlord of any commercial building", where the tenant, Anthropic, would be responsible for paying for power supply.

It comes as the federal government works to establish a framework that would require data centres to bring as much power into the electricity grid as they take.

But who pays for that power production was a dilemma, according to Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley.

He said both sides needed to be "collectively held to account" to commit to new renewable energy generation.

"If they aren't held to account in substance over the life of the project, we will inevitably see higher power prices for everyone across Queensland as a result," Mr Buckley said.

Some in the Western Downs have questioned how the region would benefit from the multi-billion-dollar investment.

Zerra DC began community consultation sessions during the day last week, but recently announced the "drop-in" sessions would run in the afternoons from midday to 8pm.

Dalby resident Robyn Sheehan said she took part in a session because she felt tired of big industries making "empty promises" in the area.

Zerra DC has committed to 1,500 jobs per year during construction and 1,400 ongoing operational jobs at full capacity, which would transform the local economy.

"To keep this thing running, we'll need a team of skilled people across mechanical, electrical, security, engineering at a 24-7 basis," Mr Ward said.