By Alesha Capone
A $3 million proposal to build the first bio-energy powered data centre in Australia at the Werribee tip has been approved by Wyndham council.
A council planning committee meeting, held on Tuesday, approved a planning permit application to construct the modularised data centre at Wyndham’s refuse disposal facility on Wests Road.
Councillor Peter Maynard said it was “amazing” that the nation’s first bio-energy powered data centre would be constructed in the municipality.
The data centre will be built by from LMS Energy Pty Ltd, which already owns and operates the Wyndham Renewable Energy Facility at the tip site.
LMS Energy has operated the facility, which has five generator modules powered with biogas generated by the nearby landfill, since 2011.
Electrical output from the facility is more than 43,000 megawatt hour (Mwh) per year of baseload renewable power, which is delivered into the local Powercor distribution network.
Under the new planning permit application, LMS Energy will install and operate six data centre modules to be powered by the renewable electricity generated on-site.
Each module will measure around 12 metres long, 3.4 metres wide and 2.4 metres high.
The facility will operate automatically without any onsite staff, apart from periodic checks from visiting maintenance technicians.
The council’s city design and liveability director, Ludo Campbell-Reid, said the data centre would not cause any visual amenity impacts.
However, Mr Campbell-Reid said that after being alerted of the proposal, the state Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has recommended potential landfill gas risks be considered as part of the plan.
The council will require LMS Energy to undertake a landfill gas risk assessment before proceeding with the data centre’s construction, including the provision of an expert consultant’s report “as to any potential hazard associated with methane beneath the land and any recommendations for the management or monitoring of methane gas”.
