NextDC data centre CEO Craig Scroggie has thrown his weight behind nuclear power and has declared “nothing should be off the table” regarding Australia’s energy mix.
NextDC has been touted as Australia’s leading independent data centre operator and has been rolling out a mammoth network of Tier III and Tier IV data centre facilities throughout the Australian market for the past decade.
Giant data centres are becoming increasingly prevalent, with American facilities now building nuclear reactors alongside the hubs due to the around the clock need for cheap and reliable power.
“Nuclear is obviously a really sensitive political topic in Australia and when I’m asked a question about this, I like to think that I am pro-science as opposed to pro-nuclear. I am pro any energy source that will allow Australia to solve the energy trilemma,” Mr Scroggie told Sky News Australia’s Business Editor Ross Greenwood.
“The energy trilemma is a concept that highlights the need for balance between three critical and often conflicting objectives of an energy system, that being; energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability.”
Mr Scroggie said Australia requires “green electrons, firm electrons and the lowest cost electrons” to ensure the grid is viable and affordable moving forwards, adding Canberra needs to keep an open mind and refrain from ruling anything out.
During the recent federal election campaign, the Coalition vowed to construct seven nuclear power plants around Australia at existing or former coal-fired power station sites by 2035, despite stringent federal and state government bans outlawing nuclear energy.
The contentious plan, and its associated costs and deliverability, were continuously scrutinised by Labor with the proposal comprehensively rejected by voters at the May 3 poll.
However, for Mr Scroggie, “nothing should be off the table” in solving the energy trilemma.
“Australia as a competitive nation has an opportunity to build an AI industry and a workforce, the history of mining in Australia that built the Australia that we know today was built on the export of resources, the future of Australian mining could be the export of tokens, through the production of AI,” he said.
“But we do need to solve the energy trilemma, and in order to get firm electrons and get cheap ones we need to consider every new energy alternative, nothing should be off the table.”
The data centre guru added that “net-zero sustainability” was an “important aspect” to the nation’s energy outlook, and Australia was “blessed with an amazing renewables landscape”.
“But when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing at night, when you go home and want to watch Netflix and use your on-demand computing services you still need that baseload power to run your television,” he said.